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HENRY   IRVING  AS    "LOUIS   XI. 


HENRY  IRVING 


A   SHORT    ACCOUNT 


OF 


HIS   PUBLIC   LIFE 


WITH  FOUR   ILLUSTRATIONS 


NEW    YORK 

WILLIAM   S.   GOTTSBERGER,   PUBLISHER 

I  I    MURRAY    STREET 

1883 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1883 

By  William  S.  Gottsberger 
In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington 


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X7H4 


"I  EARNESTLY  LOOK  FORWARD  TO  GOING  TO  AMERICA, 
FOR  T  LOVE  THE  COUNTRY  AND  HAVE  TROOPS  OF  FRIENDS 
IN    IT, 

Yours  very  truly, 


849898 


PREFACE. 


This  little  book  does  not  pretend  to  be  much  more 
than  a  compilation.  The  author  has  had  no  special  op- 
portunities for  obtaining  private  information  and  has 
never  "  interviewed  "  Mr.  Irving.  The  history  of  his 
progress  as  an  artist  is  public  property  for  those  who 
know  where  to  seek  it ;  but  to  tliose  who  do  not,  or  who 
lack  time  and  patience,  the  facts  and  opinions  here  col- 
lected for  the  first  time  cannot  fail  to  be  interesting,  if 
the    man    and    his    art    appeal    to    their    sympathies. 

Some  original  remarks  on  Mr.  Irving's  acting  have 
been  added  to  those  selected  from  the  press-notices  in 
English  journals;  and  the  author,  in  making  these 
excerpts  from  the  papers,  has  endeavored  to  exercise  an 
impartial  discretion,  eliminating  those  which  contain  un- 
critical praise  as  well  as  those  which  betray  prejudice  or 
animosity;  for  Mr.  Irving,  like  every  man  of  distinction 
and  eminence,  has  suffered  both  from  over-zealous 
friends  and  petty,  if  not  malignant  detractors.  The  facts 
remain:  the  great  fact — Henry  Irving  himself;  and 
the  accessory  facts  that  he  is  the  English  speaking  actor 
of  our  time,  and  that  he  lias  done  more  than  any  other 


II  PREFACE. 

man  to  elevate  the  naturalism  which  was  first  introduced 
into  the  humble  walks  of  the  drama  —  by  Liston,  the 
younger  Mathews,  the  Bancrofts,  and  Toole  —  to  such 
rank  and  dignity  as  should  make  it  the  worthy  hand- 
maid of  the  stately  tragic  muse. 

Though  the  criticisms  quoted  are  taken  from  many 
and  various  journals  the  writer  desires  to  acknowledge  a 
special  debt  of  gratitude  to  Mr.  Frederick  Wedmore's 
interesting  and  admirable  contributions  to  the  Academy 
(a  London  weekly  journal)  which  are  well  worthy  to  be 
collected  and  reprinted  in  a  volume. 

August,  1883. 


LIST  OF   ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Henry  Irving  as  "  I.ouis  XI."  ,        .        .  Frontispiece. 


Miss  Ellen  Terry  as  "  Ophelia."      ,       .        .  p-    76 


Henry  Irving  and  Ellen   I'erry  (Hamlet  — 1879).     .    p.  100 


Henry  Irving  as  "  Vanderdecken."         ...        p.  149 


CONTENTS. 


CHAP.  PAGE. 

INTRODUCTORY,      ......  I 

I.  irving's  apprenticeship  as  an  actor,  .         .     7 

II.    IRVING    IN    LONDON    TILL    1878,     ...  34 

III.  irving's  career  as  a  manager,  .         .         -95 

IV.  MR.  irving's  individuality  and  influence, 


-i 


HIS    SPEECHES    AND    WRITINGS, 

HIS    SOCIAL    QUALITIES,    .  .  I48 

V.    ELLEN  TERRY.    WILLIAM  TERRISS.    THOS.   MEAD,  1 97 

INDEX,  .......  209 


HENRY      IRVING. 


INTRODUCTORY. 

It  has  been  the  fate  of  many  men  of  talent- 
nay,  even  of  genius  —  to  be  born,  as  the  saying 
goes,  before  their  time  ;  to  anticipate,  always  to 
their  cost,  the  needs  of  a  future  generation,  to  in- 
terpret in  language,  dark  to  their  own  age,  the 
spirit  and  emotions  of  a  later  one.  To  such  men 
life  is  made  sad  by  disappointment,  ev^en  though 
their  gifts  may  be  quickened  by  suffering,  and 
only  a  few,  it  is  to  be  feared,  enjoy  the  prophetic 
certainty  that  the  croAA-n  they  have  never  been 
permitted  to  wear  will  be  laid  on  their  grave. 
There  are  others  whose  fortune  it  has  been  to  be 
born  in  due  season,  to  be  gifted  with  the  very 
genius  of  their  own  epoch,  to  utter  the  aspirations 
of  their  contemporaries  in  accents  which  rouse  an 
echo  in  every  heart  or — if  their  talents  do  not 
rise  to  such  a  height  of  inspiration  —  to  give  ex- 
pression in  their  lives,  their  writings,  or  their  art, 


2  HENRY   IRVING. 

to  the   dumb   instinct  of   common   feeling  which 
constitutes  what  we  call  the  Spirit  of  the  Age. 

This  instinct,  this  spirit  are  the  prerogative  of 
the  young — the  outcome  mainly  and  in  the  first 
instance  of  a  blind  reaction  (sometimes  of  a  con- 
scious revolt)  ag.ainst  that  continuity  of  heredity 
which  would  otherwise  entail  on  our  race  a  dull 
and  gradual  intensifying  of  every  characteristic 
derived  from  our  forefathers. 

The  specific  mental  pecuharities,  not  being  held 
in  check  to  the  same  extent  in  human  beings  by 
those  external  modifying  influences  which  tend  to 
vary  or  annihilate  inherited  characteristics  in  the 
rest  of  the  organic  creation,  would  accumulate 
and  eain  force  as  time  went  on,  cutting  a  deeper 
and  deeper  groove  out  of  which  each  succeeding 
generation  would  find  it  harder  to  move.  Con- 
servatism  is,  naturally,  the  note  of  the  old,  and  in 
its  turn  and  time  becomes  an  inherited  character- 
istic in  most  of  us  —  as  gout,  on  one  hand,  or  that 
freedom  from  a  disease  which  is  known  as  "  out- 
growing it,"  on  the  other,  is  developed  at  a  cer- 
tain age  in  certain  families ;  at  the  same  time  it 
must  be  owned  that  there  is  this  enormous  differ- 
ence :  The  conservatism  we  develop  is  commonly 
an  adherence  to  the  ideals  of  our  own  youth  — 
not  those  of  our  forefathers,  and  a  loving  fidelity 


.     INTRODUCTORY.  3 

to  what  was  once  the  Spirit  of  our  own  Age.  We 
taste  the  new  wine,  the  heaiiy  hquor  as  we  think 
it,  of  the  recent  vintage,  and  we  say  "  the  old  is 
better." 

It  is  in  a  great  measure  the  pendulum  swing 
of  thought  between  the  two  extremes  of  tradition 
and  innovation  which  gives  rise  to  the  historical 
phenomena  of  epochs  in  philosophy,  belief,  and 
art.  Now  and  again  Tradition  holds  the  bob  with 
a  firm  hand,  or  nails  it  up  to  the  wall ;  but  pres- 
ently the  hand  waxes  palsied  or  the  nail  rusts 
through  :  Innovation  clutches  at  the  swinging  rod, 
holds  it  at  first  with  an  uncertain  grasp,  but  pres- 
ently possesses  it  and  regulates  its  flight ;  not  with 
unerring  judgment  perhaps  but  with  some  degree 
of  vital  impetus,  till  old  Tradition  once  more  ar- 
rests it  for  a  time.  Nothing  can  more  clearly 
prove  the  truth  of  this  statement  than  the  history 
of  Art.  In  every  phase  of  Art  one  need  remains 
supreme :  our  craving  for  beauty  must  be  satis- 
fied. And  is  it  not  a  matter  of  wonder  to  note 
what  the  changes  of  taste  have  been — what,  in 
successive  periods  has  been  thought  beautiful  ? 
The  subject  is  trite.  Instances  without  number 
might  be  given  in  which,  after  periods  of  vacilla- 
tion in  taste,  some  master-mind  has  given  a  stamp 
to  his  art,  either  of  absolute  newness  of  expression 


4  HENRY    IRVING. 

(like  Berlioz  in  music  —  a  man  born  before  his 
time — and  since  Berlioz  Wagner;  like  Whistler 
in  painting;  like  Emerson  or  Swinburne  in  litera- 
ture) or  else  of  reversion  to  a  past  type,  more  or 
less  modified  by  his  own  temperament  to  his  own 
requirements.  If  he  has  spoken  to  the  hearts  of 
his  contemporaries  his  expression  of  beauty  is  ac- 
cepted by  them,  not  without  criticism,  but  still  as 
one  manifestation  of  the  highest  truth. 

"  Every  work  of  art  enshrines  a  spiritual  sub- 
ject," says  John  Addington  Symonds  in  a  recent 
work,  "  and  the  artist's  power  is  shown  in  finding 
for  that  subject  a  form  of  ideal  loveliness."  What 
the  absolute  expression  of  loveliness  may  be, 
and  what  the  relative  beauty  that  is  compatible 
with  the  spiritual  content  or  import  of  the  work, 
are  questions  which  would  need  a  separate  discus- 
sion for  each  branch  of  art  per  se.  "  The  element 
of  beauty  in  the  Actor's  art  is  perfection  of  reali- 
zation. It  is  his  duty  as  an  artist  to  show  us 
Orestes  or  Othello,  not  perhaps  exactly  as  Othello 
and  Orestes  were,  but  as  the  essence  of  their 
tragedies,  ideally  incorporate  in  action,  ought  to 

be."* 

The  man  who  has  in  his  mind  such  a  standard 

*  Italian  By-ways. 


INTRODUCTORY.  5 

of  beauty,  who  can  express  it  in  precisely  such  a 
manner  as  his  contemporaries  can  accept,  or  even 
hail,  as  uttering  their  convictions  or  feeding  their 
craving — such  a  man  is  the  Man  of  his  Time. 
Such  a  man  is  Henry  Irving. 


HENRY    IRVING. 


CHAPTER   I. 
irving's  apprenticeship  as  an  actor. 

John  Henry  Brodrib,  who  has  assumed 
the  name  of  Irving,  was  born  near  Glastonbury 
in  Somersetshire,  in  the  south-west  of  Eng- 
land, on  the  6th  of  February,  183S.  He  was 
educated  in  London  with  the  idea  of  his  enter- 
ing a  merchant's  office  and  following  a  mer- 
cantile career  to  fortune  or  failure,  as  the  case 
might  be ;  but  his  tastes  and  instincts  were  essen- 
tially histronic  and  combined,  as  may  be  supposed, 
a  determined  and  masterful  will  to  make  such  a 
life  repugnant  to  him.  He  was  placed  in  an 
India  Merchant's  office  on  leaving  school,  but  he 
and  the  desk  could  never  agree;  he  was  still  a  lad 
of  onl}^  eighteen  when  he  first  acted  in  public. 

This  was  at  Sunderland,  in  the  part  of  Orleans 
in  L\-tton's  play  of  Richelieu,  and  subsequently, 


8  HENRY   IRVING. 

at  the  same  place,  he  filled  the  part  of  Cleomenes, 
in  the  Winter's  Talc. 

The  Lyceum  theatre  at  Sunderland  had  been 
newly  built,  and  was  opened  for  the  first  time  on 
the  29th  of  September,  1856,  the  night  when 
Henry  Irving  made  his  first  appearance  on  any 
stage. 

He  remained  at  Sunderland  throughout  the 
autumn,  playing  small  parts;  and  it  was  there 
that  he  made  the  acquaintance  of  Mr.  Mead,  who 
played  the  principal  parts  when  Miss  Glyn  came 
for  a  short  time  to  act  Hermione,  Mrs.  Haller, 
and  Lady  Macbeth.  There  is  a  story  —  an  on  dit 
—  that  on  one  occasion,  when  young  Irving's 
performance  of  some  part  had  been  far  from  satis- 
factory, Mr.  Mead  and  Mr.  Johnson,  being  his 
seniors  —  and  foreseeing  perhaps  that  his  ambition 
and  perseverance  must  triumph  in  the  end  —  in- 
terfered to  prevent  his  dismissal  by  the  wrathful 
manager.  Both  these  gentlemen  are  now  on  the 
permanent  staff  of  the  Lyceum,  London  ;  and  if 
the  story  is  true  this  is  a  pleasing  instance  of  Mr. 
Irving's  gratitude  and  friendly  feeling. 

In  the  following  year  Irving  was  acting  at  the 
Theatre  Royal,  Edinburgh,  at  that  time  under  the 
management  of  Mr.  R.  H.  Wyndham  who  en- 
gaged a  succession  of  stars  to  play  various  favorite 


EDINBURGH,    1857.  9 

pieces,  keeping  a  small  permanent  staff  of  utility 
actors  for  minor  parts.  Among  the  actors  at  that 
time  attached  to  the  Theatre  Royal,  Edinburgh,  was 
the  late  Mr.  E.  U.  Lyons,  two  of  whose  sons, 
Mr.  Edmund  Lyons  and  Mr.  Robert  C.  Lyons, 
have  since  acted  with  Mr.  L'ving  at  the  Lyceum, 
under  Mr.  Bateman's  management.  Here  he 
again  played  with  Mr.  Mead,  as  well  as  with  other 
and  brighter  stars,  some  now  set  for  ever,  but 
some  few  still  hving  to  criticise  and  guide  the 
generation  that  have  grown  up  around  them. 
Miss  Glyn  was  famous  in  the  parts  Miss  Terry 
now  fills,  Portia  and  Beatrice,  but  her  repertoire  was 
wider.  She  retired  in  1868,  but  is  still  a  success- 
ful reader.  Helen  Faucit,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Wigan, 
Buckstone,  C.  Matthews,  Phelps,  and  others  visited 
Edinburgh  from  time  to  time,  constituting  a  com- 
plete school  of  art  for  any  young  actor  who  had 
the  faculty  of  assimilating  all  that  they  could 
teach. 

\\\  the  company  and  under  the  influence  of 
such  sound  and  thorough  artists  Irving  could  not 
fail  to  learn  the  traditions  of  the  old  English 
school  of  acting — traditions,  some  of  them,  which 
have  doubtless  come  down  as  from  a  respectable 
antiquity  and  can  trace  a  pedigree  through  suc- 
cessive actors,  even  from  Shakespeare  himself     At 


10  HENRY    IRVING. 

the  same  time  he  studied  his  parts  from  his  own 
point  of  view  and  stamped  them  with  an  origin- 
ality which  was  not  always  pleasing.  The  first 
time  his  name  is  mentioned  in  the  cast  there,  it  is 
as  playing  in  the  Little  Treasure,  Miss  Louise 
Keeley  playing  Gertrude.  "  The  other  parts  were 
well  filled  by  Mrs.  Atkins,  Miss  Nicol,  Messrs. 
Irving,  Lyons,  and  R.  H.  Wyndham." — iTr^?,  Satur- 
day, June  20,  1857.  —  In  other  cases  he  is  in- 
cluded under  a  comprehensive  et  cetera. 

In  the  Era  of  January  31,  1858,  he  is  again 
mentioned  by  name  as  one  of  the  stock,  still  at  the 
same  theatre  ;  but  he  is  absent  from  the  list  of 
those  by  whom  Mr.  Stirling  was  well  supported 
on  February  14th.  He  is  mentioned  again  as 
acting  in  Esmeralda,  Miss  Henrietta  Sims  playing 
the  Gipsy,  and  Mr.  T.  C.  King,  Quasimodo.  On 
Monday,  April  19th,  the  theatre  closed,  having 
ended  its  winter  season  —  but  reopened  on  the 
29th  for  a  summ^er  season,  when  Mr.  Irving 
played  Wormley  in  the  Love  Knot,  Miss  L.  Keeley 
being  the  star. 

It  is  not  till  June  13th  that  he  is  spoken  of 
with  any  kind  of  comment,  but  then  it  is  favor- 
able:  "  In  the  part  of  Fitzherbert,"  the  play  being 
Jletims,  "  Mr.  Irving  has  achieved  an  undoubted 
success.      Animated  bv  a  sincere  devotion  to  his 


EDINBURGH,     1 858.  II 

art,  as  his  care  and  earnestness  testify,  no  doubt 
he  will  speedily  and  successfully  fill  a  higher  range 
of  parts  than  he  has  hitherto  done." — Era.  Mr. 
Toole,  though  quite  young,  was  already  an  estab- 
lished favorite  with  the  Edinburgh  play-goers, 
and  it  was  at  the  Theatre  Royal,  that  he  and  Mr. 
Irving  first  made  an  acquaintance  which  has  since 
ripened  into  friendship.  Rivals  they  could  never 
have  been,  under  any  circumstances. 

July  25th,  in  Marriage  a  Lottery,  "  Mr.  Irving 
as  Herbert  was,  as  usual,  natural  and  gentlemanly, 
tasteful  in  his  dress  and  perfect  in  his  part."  Aug. 
8th.  "  Mr.  Irving  evinces  the  same  care  in 
Quaverly  (Helping  Hands)  which  characterizes 
all  his  acting."  In  Perouron,  the  Bellows  ALender, 
"a  by  no  means  successful  piece  and  the  prototype 
of  the  Lady  of  Lyons  ;"  we  learn  that  there  was 
"  some  admirable  acting,  and  we  must  not  for- 
get Mr.  Irving  as  Raymond  *  *  *  who  was  very 
good." 

"  Soyez  tranquille,"  a  cook,  Sept.  26th,  "  ex- 
cellently delineated  by  Mr.  Irving."  Oct.  31st. 
"  Mr.  Irving  as  Charles  Courtly  (^London  Assur- 
ance^ deserves  a  word  of  praise ;  he,  with  the 
other  characters,  was  honored  with  a  call  before 
the  curtain." 

In  November  the  Theatre  Royal  closed  for  the 


12  HENRY    IRVING. 

preparation  of  a  pantomime,  and  Mr.  R.  H.Wynd- 
ham's   company  was   transferred   to   the   Queen's, 
where  Sheridan  Knowles'  play.  The  Wife,  was  put 
on  the  stage.      It  was  "  very  creditably  performed, 
Miss    Sophie  Miles   (Mariana),   Mr.    Melville,   and 
Mr.   Irving  (Leonardo),  being  called   at  the   con- 
clusion."    The  next  piece  was   Still  Waters  Run 
Deep,  by  Tom  Taylor ;   in  this  Irving  played  the 
small    part    of  Dunbilk,    the    Irish  swindler,    and 
showed   his   unfailing    care   even    in    that.      "  His 
make  up  was,  as  usual,  exceedingly  good."      He 
next  appeared  in  A  Hard  Struggle,  by  Westland 
Marston,  and  "Mr.  Irving,  as  Fergus  Graham,  per- 
formed   excellently."      Helpi7ig   Hands    was    re- 
vived for  Toole's  benefit  on  the  14th  of  December, 
and  Mr.  Irving  was  now  promoted  to  the  part  of 
Lord  Quaverly,  a  musical  dilettante;   "his  make 
up  and  acting  were  excellent."   In  January,  1859, 
Mr.     R.     H.     Wyndham     was     still     lessee     and 
manager    of    both    the    Theatre    Royal    and    the 
Queen's  theatre  in  Edinburgh,  and  Mr.  Irving  was 
still  a  member  of  his  company.     Throughout  the 
winter  his  name  stands  on   the   bills  of  the   Royal 
in  several  pieces  played  before  the  Pantomime  in 
turn  :   My  Wife's  Mother  ;    Tom  Noddy  s  Secret  ; 
The  Little  Treasure,  and  other  "  light  articles,"  "  in 
which  the  principal  parts  have  been  filled  bv  *  *  * 


EDINBURGH.    I  859.  1 3 

Messrs.  Ersser  Jones,  Irving,  G.  Smythson,  etc.," 
and  on  Monday,  February  15th,  "Mr.  Irving — in 
llic  Porter's  Knot — as  Augustus  Burr,  gave  evi- 
dence of  his  continuous  progress  as  an  actor  who 
takes  nature  as  his  guide,  and  is  determined  to 
succeed."  Again,  in  Hamilton  of  BotJiwell  HargJi, 
"  Mr.  Irving  has  acquired  new  laurels  in  the  part 
of  Cyril  Baliol,  the  plotting  priest,  and  making 
allowance  for  the  comparative  inexperience  of  so 
young  an  actor  (Henry  Irving  was  at  this  time  only 
just  one  and  twenty  and  had  been  on  the  stage 
little  more  than  two  years)  the  personation 
is  worthy  of  much  praise,  and  indicative  of 
rapid  progress.  Messrs.  George  Melville  and 
Irving  have  frequently  been  called  to  acknowledge 
the  plaudits  of  the  audiences  for  their  able  acting 
in  the  parts  of  Hamilton  and  Cyril  Baliol." 

Raising  the  Wind  was  also  being  played  — 
Mr.  Irving  certainly  not  taking  the  part  of  Jeremy 
Diddler,  but  it  is  highly  probable  that  some  lucky 
hit — or  perhaps  some  palpable  shortcoming — on 
the  part  of  the  actor  who  did  play  it  suggested  to 
him  a  rendering  of  the  impecunious  scapegrace 
which  has  since  been  very  successful.  Here  too 
he  saw  Louis  XI.  played  by  Mr.  Dillon,  "  well 
supported  by  Messsrs.  Jones,  Lyons,  Irving,  etc," 
He  is  again  mentioned  as  giving  "  good  support " 


14  HENRY   IRVING. 

in  SiJigk  Life,  and  as  Mr.  Lionel  Lynd  in  Mar- 
ried Life,  and  at  the  close  of  this  season,  at  the 
beginning  of  May,  Mr.  Irving  tasted  the  sweets  of 
his  first  benefit  night.  "  Monday  last,  the  2nd,  was 
devoted  to  the  first  benefit  of  Mr.  Irving,  a  young 
actor  whose  progress  we  have  frequentlyliad  occa- 
sion to  notice.  This  gentleman,  comparatively  a 
novice  on  the  stage,  has  been  engaged  by  Mr. 
Harris  for  the  Princess'  Theatre,  London,  where, 
we  doubt  not,  he  will  in  a  few  years,  realize  our 
expectations  ;  for,  though  Mr.  Irving  undoubtedly 
displays  considerable  talent  in  a  varied  line  of 
parts,  it  is,  perhaps  more  for  his  zeal  and  rapid 
progress,  his  evident  determination  to  excel,  and 
his  perceptible  realization  of  this  resolution,  than 
for  the  position  he  at  present  holds  that  he  has 
won  the  esteem  and  encouraging  approbation  of 
Edinburgh  play-goers."  The  Eras  judgment 
proved  to  be  better  than  its  English,  though  Mr. 
Irving's  provincial  experiences  were,  as  it  turned 
out,  by  no  means  at  an  end ;  nothing  but  that 
undaunted  determination  to  rise  which  character- 
ized him  from  his  earliest  youth  could  have  ena- 
bled him  to  triumph  over  a  series  of  rebuffs  and 
difficulties.  On  this  occasion  he  played  Gustave  de 
Grignon  in  The  Ladies  Battle,  a  strongly-marked 
character-part,   and  probably  well  suited  to  him, 


EDINBURGH,    1 859.  I  5 

Captain  Beaugard  in  The  Reviezv,  and  Walter  War- 
ren in  A  Poor  GirV s  Temptations. 

The  Theatre  Royal,  as  it  then  existed,  was 
closed  in  May,  condemned  to  make  way  for  the 
new  Post-Office;  and  the  last  time  Mr.  Irving 
stood  on  the  boards  which  had  been  the  scene  of 
his  early  studies  and  labors  and  where  he  had 
gathered  the  first  buds,  so  to  speak,  of  that  "herb 
o'  grace"  fulfilment,  it  was  as  Soaper,  one  of  the 
critics  who  victimize  Triplet  in  Masks  and  Faces, 
who  "  lathers"  while  Snarl  shaves.  The  whole 
company  now  migrated  to  the  Queen's,  which 
reopened   in    June    after    a    short    holiday. 

On  Friday,  the  12th  of  August,  by  command 
of  the  Prince  of  Wales,  who  was  visiting  Edin- 
burgh, a  Scotch  piece  was  to  be  performed, 
and  Cramond  Br-ig  was  selected  and  "  ex- 
ceedingly well  acted."  "Mr.  Irving  was  a  King 
James  truly  noble  in  heart  and  speech,  as  a  King 
ought  to  be  ;"  a  forecast  this,  perhaps,  of  his  suc- 
cess as  a  later  and  more  hapless  Stuart  King.  In 
a  bnrlesqne  of  Kenilworth,  "  Mr.  Irving  was  great 
in  his  make  up  as  Wayland  Smith.  The  origi- 
nality displayed  by  this  gentleman  is  remarkable, 
and  had  he  not  been  an  actor,  we  think  from  this 
feature  alone  that  he  would  have  been  successful 
as  an  artist."      "The   ungracious   part  of  Appius 


1 6  HENRY    IRVING. 

Claudius  in  Virginms  was  carefully  filled  by  Mr. 
Irving."  (The  chiefcharacter  byMr.  Dillon, an  actor 
who  achieved  popularity  in  the  English  provinces, 
but  who  has  left  no  mark  on  the  history  of  the 
stage.)  He  played  again  "excellently"  in  Grist 
to  the  Mill,  and  on  Tuesday,  September  13th, 
1859,  took  a  farewell  benefit,  playing  Claude  Mel- 
notte,  a  favorite  benefit  part  with  all  jciines 
premiers.  "  We  have  frequently  adverted  "  (the 
Era,  September  18,  1859)  "to  the  rapid  progress 
Mr.  Irving  has  made  in  his  profession  by  unremit- 
ting zeal  and  study,  but  on  his  last  appearance  he 
excelled  all  his  previous  personations.  Some  may 
have  deemed  it  somewhat  ambitious  that  an  actor 
who  has  not  been  quite  three  years  on  the  stage, 
should  attempt  the  character  of  Claude  Melnotte 
in  TJie  Lady  of  Lyons,  but  the  finish  with  which 
Mr.  Irving  sustained  the  part  effectually  proved 
that  he  had  not  over-estimated  his  powers.  Thrice 
was  he  called  in  the  course  of  the  piece  to  receive 
the  applause  of  a  well-filled  house.  He  took  leave 
of  his  Edinburgh  friends  in  a  modest  speech." 

Mr.  Irving  now,  no  doubt,  hoped  and  believed 
that  his  Wander  Jahre  were  over,  and  that  Lon- 
don, "paved  with  gold,"  was  for  the  future  to  be 
the  scene  of  his  efforts;  but  Fate  was  not  yet  on 
his  side.      Nearly  seven    more   years  of  probation 


LONDON,    1859.  17 

and  patience  were  still  before  him,  an  uphill  fight 
of  which  few  details  can  be  found.  But  he  was 
young  and  brave,  with  that  strong  self-confidence, 
which  in  its  lowest  manifestations  is  sheer  conceit, 
but  in  its  highest,  self-reliant  courage. 

Henry  Irving  had  a  chance  now  on  a  London 
stage ;  but  that  he  was  not  ripe  for  it  is  pretty 
certain  or  in  the  dearth  of  high-class  actors,  now 
that  Charles  Kean  had  retired  (he  still  played  for 
a  short  time  in  the  provinces),  he  must  have  made 
his  mark.  He  got  no  great  part  given  him,  it  is 
true,  to  fail  in — perhaps  that  was  not  the  unkind- 
est  trick  Fortune  could  play  him  —  but  his  mana- 
ger never  put  his  name  in  the  advertisements,  and 
the  few  parts  before  which  his  name  occurs  in  the 
critiques  are  small  enough  to  escape  censure,  as 
well  as  to  miss  praise. 

The  Keans  left  the  Princess's,  London,  in  Sep- 
tember, 1859,  and  it  reopened  shortly  after  under 
the  management  of  the  late  Mr.  Augustus  Harris 
with  a  new  play  adapted  from  the  French  by  John 
Oxenford,  and  called  Ivy  Hall. 

In  September,  1859,  Mr.  Harris  opened  the 
Princess's  Theatre,  London,  with  Ivy  Hall,  a  free 
adaptation  of  Ic  Roman  d'un  Jcu7ic  Homme 
Pauvrc,  and  introduced  Mr.  Harcourt  Bland  and 
Miss  Kate  Savile  from  the  provinces  to  a  London 


1 8  HENRY    IRVING. 

public ;  but  Mr.  Irving  is  not  named,  though  wc 
have  reason  to  beHeve  he  joined  the  company  at 
that  time.  On  Saturday,  October  the  8th  a  small 
part  was  given  him  in  a  farcical  afterpiecp,  The 
Two  Polts,  and  this  was  probably  the  first  occasion 
of  his  coming  before  a  London  audience  —  under 
circumstances  neither  flattering  nor  gratifying,  it 
may  be  suspected.  His  name  is  not  mentioned 
by  the  critics.  In  October,  however,  when  Mr. 
George  Melville  was  playing  Hamlet,  he  took  the 
part  of  Osrick,  not  a  bad  little  part  as  little  parts 
go,  with  a  distinct  individuality  and  an  opening 
for  picturesque  treatment ;  but  with  what  heart- 
burning Henry  Irving  was  by  this  time  beginning 
to  look  on  at  the  successes  or  failures,  the  beau- 
ties or  defects  of  his  seniors  may  be  readily  con- 
ceived. 

How  far  from  satisfactory  George  Melville 
proved  himself  in  Hamlet  may  be  gathered  from 
a  contemporary  criticism  :  "  of  the  language  and 
play  he  has  by  no  means  a  firm  grasp  *  *  he  often 
glides  heedlessly  over  words  and  sentences  which, 
even  to  a  careful  reader  unacquainted  with  stage 
traditions,  proclaim  their  own  significance."  Mr. 
Melville  is  advised  to  eschew  "  unprofitable  ambi- 
tion," and  the  critic  adds:  "we  are  by  no  means 
overstocked  with  actors  strong    enough    to    sus- 


LONDON,    1859.  19 

tain     the     ordinary    pieces    of    melodramatic    in- 
terest." 

And  at  the  time  when  this  was  written  there 
were  only  five  first-class  theatres  open  in  London  ! 

Mr.  Irving,  as  he  read  these  remarks  in  the 
Times,  must  have  found  much  to  reflect  on.  His 
own  criticism  on  the  aspirant's  performance  would 
be  interesting  to  us  now  if  it  were  to  be  found 
lurking  in  some  diary  or  note  book  ;  and  it  would 
probably  be  quite  as  sympathetic  as  severe  since 
he  himself  had  already  realized  the  difficulties  of 
the  part.  After  this  he  played  Rudolphe  in  a 
revival  of  TJic  Wonderful  Woman,  but  we  find  no 
further  mention  of  his  name  in  the  Princess's  play- 
bills. 

In  this  year,  1859,  we  find  the  first  mention  of 
a  dramatic  reading  given  by  Mr.  Irving.  It  was 
one  night  in  December,  at  Crosby  Hall  in  Bishop- 
gate  street,  a  place  now  used  for  public  entertain- 
ments, but  interesting  to  the  historian  and  to  the 
student  of  Shakespeare  as  having  been  between 
1475  and  1483  the  residence  of  Richard,  Duke  of 
Gloster.*     It  would  be  pleasant  to  imagine  that 


*  Crosby  House  Was  subsequently  the  residence  of  the  great  Sir 
Thomas  More,  and  at  a  later  period  when  Sir  John  Spencer  lived  there 
many  illustrious  persons  were  visitors  there.  The  Countess  of  Pem- 
broke, Sir  Philip  Sidney's  sister,  also  lived  for  some  years  in  Crosby 
House. 


20  HENRY    IRVING. 

the  unsuccessful  young  actor  indulged  in  some 
dreams  of  future  triumph  and  drew  an  inspiration 
of  bloodless  ambition  as  he  stood  under  the  roof 
where  the  prince  had  lived  whose  presentment  it 
has  since  been  his  fortune  to  realize  to  the  men  of 
a  later  generation.  However  on  this  occasion  he 
was  satisfied  to  render  the  work  of  a  less  poet  than 
Shakespeare,  and  to  follow  the  fortunes  of  a  minor 
hero  than  the  ruthless  Richard. 

"  We  recollect,"  says  a  writer  in  Players,  "  that 
Mr.  Irving  was  a  gentleman  of  considerable  talent 
and  a  great  favorite  in  the  provinces"  —  an  un- 
kind touch  of  the  "  faint  praise  '.'  which  is  so  fatal ; 
"  and  went  to  hear  him  read  T/ir  Lady  of  Lyons. 
Instead  of  finding  the  usual  conventional  medi- 
ocrity which  would  seem  to  characterize  the 
dramatic  reader,  we  were  gratified  by  hearing  it 
poetically  read  by  a  most  accomplished  elocution- 
ist, who  gave  us  not  only  words,  but  that  finer 
indefinite  something  which  proves  incontestably 
and  instantaneously  that  the  fire  of  genius  is  in 
the  artist." 

Mr.  Henry  Irving  is  next  heard  of  as  acting  at 
Manchester,  October  7th,  i860,  as  a  new  member 
of  the  company  at  the  Theatre  Royal,  and  as 
"from  Edinburgh;"  it  is  to  be  presumed,  there- 
fore, either   that   he  had   not  been   successful   in 


MANCHESTER,    l86o-'6l.  21 

London,  or  that  a  succession  of  small  parts  had 
neither  satisfied  his  ambition  nor  afforded  him  such 
practice  as  he  had  hoped  to  have.  Here  he 
played  Adolphe  in  Plambi's  Secret  Service,  Horace 
in  Daddy  Hardacre,  Frank  Meredith  in  Romance 
and  Reality,  and  a  leading  part  in  Diamond  Cut 
Diamond. 

In  i86i  his  name  appears  in  the  cast  for  A 
Word  in  Yonr  Ear,  "  well  acted,"  but  changed  in 
February  to  George  Barmueli  in  which  he  seems 
to  have  played  the  leading  part.  He  is  also,  "  es- 
pecially mentioned  "  in  a  little  comedy  entitled 
Married  Daughters  and  Young  Husbands ;  the 
two  last  pieces,  with  the  pantomime  constituting,  as 
we  can  well  believe,  "  a  rather  long  performance  and 
plenty  for  the  money."  His  name  does  not  ap- 
pear in  the  pantomimes,  but  it  is  quite  certain  that 
during  an  apprenticeship  of  general  utility  he  must 
have  done  duty  in  some  parts  not  strictly  legiti- 
mate ;  indeed  we  have  heard  that  he  once  figured 
as  one  of  those  cross-grained  sisters  who  led 
Cinderella  such  a  life.  One  thing  is  certain  :  what- 
ever he  did  he  did  his  best. 

He  afterwards  filled  a  secondary  part  in  TJie 
Island  Home,  an  adaptation  of  the  same  French 
play  as  supplied  Miss  Herbert,  and  Mr.  Alfred 
Wigan,     if     we     remember     rightly,     with     the 


22  HENRY    IRVING. 

materials  for  a  success  in  The  Isle  of  Saint 
Tropez.  Then  he  played  Herbert  Waverly  in 
Playing  with  Fire,  a  comedy  by  John  Brougham, 
who  acted  the  leading  part.  "  He  had  a  dif- 
ficult part  and^  acted  with  much  care  and  feeling, 
giving  us  less  of  his  peculiar  mannerism,  and 
showing  us  that  he  had  studied  the  play  as  well 
as  the  character  of  Herbert  Waverly."  {^Era,  July, 
i86i). 

When  the  Theatre  Royal,  Manchester,  re- 
opened in  September,  1861,  Mr.  Irving  was  still 
only  thought  equal  to  inferior  parts,  Mr.  D.  H. 
Jones  being  engaged  for  leading  business,  and  Mr. 
Irving  standing  third  on  the  list  of  the  staff.  He 
had  "  a  very  uphill  part  in  the  Family  Secret  and 
got  through  it  creditably."  The  starring  system 
was  then  in  force  at  this  theatre ;  a  system  which 
secures  variety  of  stage  practice  for  the  perma- 
nent staff,  but  small  chances  of  making  any  ad- 
vance in  position,  or  "  a  hit"  in  a  good  part.  He 
acted  with  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Florence,  who  were  very 
successful  ;  with  Charles  Mathews,  first  and  last 
perhaps  the  most  popular  light  comedian  ever  seen 
on  the  English  stage ;  with  Mr.  Edwin  Booth  — 
when  he  played  Othello,  but  Mr.  Irving  did  not 
play  lago  —  and  when  he  played  Sir  Giles  Over- 
reach in  A  Nezv  Way  to  Pay  Old  Debts  —  a  part 


MANCHESTER,.  1862-63.  23 

which  Mr.  Edmund  Kean  had  made  fam.ous  but 
which  Mr.  Irving  has  not  yet  attempted  —  he  took 
the  small  part  of  Wellborn.  He  was  the  hero  in 
Mr.  J.  Brougham's  next  new  comedy  F/ies  in  the 
Web,  and  played  minor  parts  in  several  revivals. 
On  March  21st,  Mr.  Walter  Montgomery  played 
Othello  for  the  benefit  of  the  acting  manager  of 
the  theatre  and  Irving,  being  named  next  to  Mr. 
Calvert,  who  played  lago,  it  is  probable  that  he 
played  Cassio.  He  was  Sir  Thomas  in  The  Hunch- 
back and  is  constantly  mentioned  throughout  the 
season  as  supporting — "ably,  efficiently,  care- 
fully"—  a  succession  of  actors  and  actresses  who 
appeared  in  every  variety  of  drama.  He  seems 
to  have  escaped,  or  to  have  refused  burlesque  parts, 
but  to  have  worked  at  every  other  line  of  his  art. 
Lovers,  husbands,  villains,  heroes,  gentlemen,  and 
blackguards,  he  was  each  in  turn. 

He  returned  with  the  same  company  in  Sep- 
tember, 1862,  playing  Captain  Howard  in  the 
Peep  d  day,  which  had  an  unusually  long  run  of 
sixty-seven  nights.  The  pantomime  took  its 
place,  preceded  by  a  Hard  Struggle  in  which 
Irving  acted  Fergus  Graham. 

January,  1863,  found  him  still  in  the  same  po- 
sition—  "he  lacked  advancement,"  and  on  Friday 
night,    May    15th,    when    he    took    a    benefit,   he 


24  HENRY    IRVING. 

secured  the  services  of  the  unhappy  Walter  Mont- 
gomery to  play  Hamlet,  while  he  himself  filled  the 
part  of  Laertes.  However,  he  and  his  manager 
seem  to  have  agreed  very  well,  or  perhaps  neces- 
sity was  his  master,  for  when  several  of  the  per- 
manent staff  seceded,  their  number  being  greater 
than  was  required,  Mr.  Irving  remained  at  Man- 
chester. 

We  find  his  name  on  September  14th,  when 
he  played  in  the  afterpieces,  Mr.  Sothern  en- 
grossing the  Manchester  public  as  Lord  Dun- 
dreary. When  the  piece  was  supplemented  by 
My  Aiinf  s  Advice  for  Sothern  to  play  Captain 
Howard  Leslie,  Irving  played  witli  him  the  small 
part  of  the  husband,  and  did  "that  little  well." 
During  the  winter  season  he  played  in  the  pieces 
before  the  pantomime:  "the  principal  part  in  Who 
Speaks  First?  with  gentlemanly  ease  and  finish;" 
Bernard  Reynolds  in  JMirianis  Crime;  George 
Barnwell,  etc.,  Faust,  in  Faust  and  Marqiierite, 
was  a  better  part,  and  in  April  he  played  Mer- 
cutio;  "We  have  not  seen  Mr.  Irving  to  better 
advantage,  he  played  the  part  well." 

In  May,  1864,  the  announcement  that  "he 
filled  the  part  of  Hardress  Cregan  {^Colleen  Baivn) 
creditably,"  is  supplemented  by  the  remark  that 
he  is  becoming  "quite  a  favorite,"   and  on  June 


APPEARS    AS    HAMLET — 1S64.  25 

the    1 2th    it   is  announced   that  Mr.   Irving  "will 
take  a  benefit,  when  he  will  appear  as  Hamlet." 

At  last  !  and  perhaps  this  performance  lives 
in  Mr.  Irving's  memor}',  even  to  this  day,  after  a 
series  of  trials  and  successes,  as  the  most  momen- 
tous event  of  his  life  —  as  the  crisis  of  his  develop- 
ment, the  critical  instant  of  his  personal  experience, 
and  the  test  of  his  individuality.  It  took  place  on 
Monday,  June  26th,  1864. 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  no  critic  was  present 
more  competent  to  judge  of  the  qualities  and 
faults  of  the  performance  than  the  ordinary  repor- 
ter of  the  Era  newspaper.  This  English  weekly, 
though  of  value  as  a  record  of  many  events  which 
would  otherwise  be  lost  in  the  gulf  of  time,  is  not 
particularly  well  served  by  its  provincial  corres- 
pondents. Men  of  taste  and  experience  do  not 
care  to  undertake  such  small  and  poorly-paid 
work,  and  while  the  standard  of  art  is  not  com- 
monly a  very  high  one,  a  little  friendliness,  or 
habits  of  pleasant  intercourse,  are  not  altogether 
without  influence.  "  One  of  the  most  curious 
experiences  of  the  actor  is  provided  when,  on 
migrating  from  town  to  country,  or  vice  versa,  he 
first  notes  tlic  difference  between  the  criticism 
bestowed  upon  hini  in  the  London  journals  and 
the  criticism  —  Hea\'en   save   the  mark!  —  which 


26  HENRY    IRVING. 

his  performances  receive  in  the  provincial  press." 
( Theatre).  London  criticism  is  often  hasty,  super- 
ficial, not  absokitely  unbiassed  perhaps,  but  at  any 
rate  it  is  based  on  some  standard  of  comparison 
and  formed  on  some  variety  of  experience.  Still, 
we  may  believe  the  report  which  says  that  "  Mr. 
Irving  displayed  a  careful  study  and  good  appre- 
ciation of  the  author,  and  many  parts  were 
admirably  rendered."  He  repeated  it  on  the 
following  Saturday,  and  he  seems  to  have  made 
good  his  right  to  leading  parts  from  that  time. 
He  played  Hamlet  again  on  the  last  night  of  that 
season  having  "wonderfully  improved." 

When  the  theatre  reopened  The  Comedy  of 
Errors  was  put  upon  the  stage,  with  Mr.  Irving 
as  one  Antipholus,  and  Mr.  G.  F.  Sinclair  as  the 
other.  He  retired  again  into  the  part  of  Laertes  for 
Mr.  Walter  Montgomery  to  play  Hamlet,  and  sup- 
ported him  when  he  played  Romeo  and  Othello. 
Then  he  played  the  pretty  part  of  Maurice  War- 
ner in  Camilla  s  Husband,  and  in  the  course  of 
November  he  made  or  improved  his  acquaintance 
with  Miss  Bateman  who  played  Leah,  but  he  does 
not  seem  to  have  had  any  part  in  the  piece. 

In  January,  1865,  he  was  playing  in  the  small 
comedies  or  farces  before  the  pantomime  and  never 
seems  to  have  shirked  work  of  any  kind.      On  the 


MANCHESTER,    1 865.  2/ 

26th    of    February,    he    played    Robert   Macaire, 
"  witli  great  power,"  a  part  he  played  again  after 
an  interval  of  some  years,  in  London  ;   and  again 
not  long  since,    under   Royal  patronage,   for  the 
benefit  of    the   New   College   of  Music.      Haines' 
drama  of  Charming  Polly  seems  to  have  been  the 
last  piece  in  which  he  acted  at  the  Theatre  Royal, 
Manchester.      He  then,   for  a  short  while,  joined 
Messrs.  Fred.  Maccabe  and  Philip  Day  in  giving 
an  entertainment  at  the  Free-Trade   Hall   in  that 
city ;  "  a  seance  a  la  Davenport  brothers  ;  the  bur- 
lesque lecture  by  Mr.  Irving  caused  loud  laughter 
and  applause."    It  must  certainly  have  been  exqui- 
sitely funny.  The  performance  was  repeated  two  or 
three  times  and   "a  complimentary  benefit "   was 
given  to    Mr.  Irving   when   he  took  his  leave  of 
the  Manchester  public,  after  he  had    assisted  his 
colleague   Mr.  Maccabe  to  take  his  at  the  Prince's 
theatre,  where  he  played  four  times  after  leaving 
the  Theatre   Royal.      A  committee  of  his  friends 
arranged  an  attractive  miscellaneous   programme 
for  that  eventful  Wednesday,  12th  of  April — the 
last   day  when    Mr.    Irving   was    to  be   regarded 
as  merely  a  provincial   actor.      It   was  to  include 
the  comedy  Who  Speaks  First,  the  burlesque  of  the 
Davenports,  and  the  farce  of  Raising  the    Wind, 
and  "the  reception  accorded  to  him  was  the  best 


28  HENRY    IRVING. 

proof  of  the  appreciation  and  esteem  in  which 
this  young-  actor  is  held  by  the  play-goers  of  our 
city.  The  Hall  was  crowded  with  nearly  3,000 
persons  and  he  was  greeted  with  vehement  and 
prolonged  cheering."  {Era).  He  acted  again  at 
Manchester,  Wednesday,  May  4th,  for  the  benefit 
of  Mr.  Robert  Cooke  the  treasurer  of  the  Prince's 
Theatre,  who  "  was  so  fortunate  as  to  secure  his 
services  for  the  part  of  Nemours  in  Louis  XL," 
and  he  repeated  "  the  expose  of  the  Davenport 
brothers  with  Messrs.  Maccabe  and  Day,"  for  Mr. 
Day's  benefit  at  the  end  of  the  month.  He  played 
Edmund  in  Khtg  Lear  for  Mr.  Calvert's  benefit  in 
June,  and  Frank  Hawthorne  in  Extremes  for  Mr. 
John  Nelson's,  and  he  then  performed  for  a  week 
as  Edmund  till  the  end  of  the  season  at  the 
Prince's,  following  it  up  every  evening  with  Dick 
Hazard  in  JMy  J  Fife's  Dentist 

We  next  find  Mr.  Irving  acting  at  Douglas  the 
principal  town  of  the  Isle  of  Man,  a  speck  of  land 
lying  between  England  and  Ireland  in  the  Irish 
Sea.  He  here  played  in  the  Wonderful  Woman, 
and  Married  Daughters,  and  took  his  benefit  on 
the  24th  of  July  in  My  Wifes  Dentist.  From 
thence  he  went  to  Oxford  and  played  in  London 
Assurance,  with  what  would  be  thought  in  these 
days  of  elaborate  touring,   a  rather  scratch    com- 


LIVERPOOL,     1866.  29 

pany,  including  however  some  very  respectable 
names.  The  Ticket  of  Leave  Man  was  revived  and 
Irving  played  the  Lancashire  lad  Bob  Brierly. 
After  this  we  find  little  trace  of  Henry  Irving's 
proceedings  till  he  returned  to  London  and  began 
that  career  of  steady  progress  which  has  brought 
him  to  such  eminence.  He  probably  went  on  prac- 
tising his  art  in  minor  parts  at  various  country 
theatres.  He  is  mentioned  as  playing  at  Liverpool 
in  June.  1866  —  Ironbrace  in  Used  Up,  to  Charles 
Mathews'  Sir  Charles  Coldstream,  and  he  took  a 
benefit  in  Robert  Macaire. 

The  lesson  —  the  moral  —  of  the  early  years 
of  Henry  Irving's  public  life  is  simple  and  easy  to 
read.  He  has  from  the  first  had  that  infinite 
capacity  for  taking  pains  which,  if  it  does  not 
actually  constitute  genius  —  and  we  are  far  from 
aereeincr  with  the  great  man  who  said  it  did — is 
certainly  an  indispensable  concomitant.  He  has 
never  shirked  work,  and  we  cannot  but  marvel  at 
the  indomitable  ambition  and  determination  which 
when  he  did  not  succeed  in  London  in  1859, 
carried  him  through  seven  years  more  of  drudg- 
ery in  the  provinces. 

For  provincial  acting  is  drudgery ;  under  the 
old-fashioned  starring  system  it  was  desperately 
hard   work.      Every  fortnight,   or  oftener,  a  fresh 


30  HENRY    IRVING. 

play  had  to  be  got  up,  or,  even  more  frequently, 
some  variation  in  the  stage  arrangements  or  busi- 
ness of  an  old  one  had  to  be  learnt ;  this  involved 
constant  rehearsals ;  constant  refreshing  of  the 
memory  and  extreme  flexibility  of  habit.  It  was 
admirable  practice  but  very  exhausting  —  how 
exhausting,  none  but  those  who  have  some  knowl- 
edge of  the  actor's  art  can  fully  understand.  The 
touring  system,  which  is  now  so  much  more  corh- 
nion  —  a  system  by  which  a  leading  actor  takes 
his  whole  company  with  him  —  has  in  some  meas- 
ure altered  this,  but  not  we  trust  "reformed  it 
altogether."  for  it  seems  doubtful  whether  it  will 
produce  such  good  actors  as  the  permanent  staff- 
system.  On  that  old  plan  a  second-rate  actor 
now  and  again  got  a  chance  of  making  his  mark 
when  there  was  no  star  in  the  ascendant,  and  one 
thing  he  was  almost  always  sure  of:  variety  of 
experience.  It  is  only  in  a  vast  metropolis  like 
New  York  or  London  that  there  is  such  a  supply 
of  play-goers,  practically  unlimited,  as  can  keep 
one  stock  piece  on  the  boards  of  a  theatre  for  a 
run  of  several  weeks  or  even  months.  A  nar- 
rower circle  of  audience  must  be  tempted  by 
more  variety.  It  is  to  this  that  an  actor  like 
Irving,  who  was  to  all  intents  and  purposes  an 
actor  of  general   utility  for  ten   years,   owes   the 


APPRENTICESHIP    AS   AN    ACTOR.  3 1 

extraordinary  variety  of  experience  which  he  can 
now  bring  to  bear  on  his  great  parts.  It  is  evi- 
dent at  a  glance  that  no  one  small  part  could  give 
an  actor  the  stage  practice  which  would  enable 
him  to  follow  it  up  at  once  with  Hamlet,  Richard 
III.,  or  Richelieu.  A  villain  in  a  melodrama  —  a 
lover  in  a  comedy  —  a  character  part,  however 
marked,  affords  experience  in  one  groove  only  for 
the  time  being.  If  an  actor  is  many  sided  by 
nature,  he  wilLplay  each  well  in  turn  —  and  better 
each  time ;  and  by  such  a  process  he  will  learn  to 
use  his  means  of  expression  with  appropriate 
variety  —  his  tones  of  voice,  that  is  to  say,  his 
facial  expression,  his  gesture,  and  action.  Then 
his  mind  will  develop  eclecticism,  his  imagination 
grow  more  fertile,  his  sympathies  expand,  and  his 
taste  become  more  fastidious  with  exercise ;  his 
genius  will  assert  itself  as  the  governing  spirit  of 
the  materials  thus  collected  and  the  means  thus 
mastered.  The  man  —  if  he  is  a  born  actor — will 
find  that  he  can  act. 

There  are,  alas,  two  alternatives  to  this  hapjby 
consummation :  He  may  not  after  all  be  a  born 
actor  or,  even  if  he  be,  he  may  never  learn  to  act. 
We  could  make  a  melancholy  list  of  failures  in 
both  these  kinds.  The  catalogue  of  the  first  class 
is  a  short  one,  but  it  is  a  glorious  one.      It   must. 


32  HENRY    IRVING. 

we  like  to  believe,  be  headed  by  Shakespeare,  and 
include  Burbage,  Betterton,  Garrick,  and  Edmund 
Kean. 

Now,  at  the  end  of  his  long  probation,  Henry 
Irving  hoped  to  add  his  name  to  this  list. 

Has  he  succeeded  ?  Yes,  we  think  he  has. 
We  think  he  is  the  actor  born,  we  know  he  has 
learnt  his  art.  That  he  is  without  a  flaw  or  a  de- 
fect no  one  could  pretend  to  assert,  but  he  has 
imagination,  sympathy,  and  taste;  even  after  thir- 
teen years  of  McistcrscJiaft  we  may  trust  to  these 
great  qualities  to  judge  and  mitigate  the  defects  of 
which,  we  may  be  sure,  he  is  as  well  aware  as  his 
critics. 

When  he  was  still  quite  young  he  showed  the 
stuff  that  was  in  him,  not  the  talent  merely  but 
the  philosophical  ambition  and  tenacity  of  pur- 
pose. There  is  a  story  told  of  the  late  highly- 
respected  actor  Samuel  H.  Phelps  which  seems  to 
prove  that  he  thought  Henry  Irving  fully  justified 
in  his  choice  of  a  profession.  While  he  was  still 
a  lad  in  a  merchant's  office  he  went  to  see  Mr. 
Phelps,  then  at  Sadler's  Wells  theatre,  and  ex- 
plained his  ambition.  "  Sir,  don't  go  on  the  stage," 
said  the  elder  man,  "  it  is  an  ill-requited  profes- 
sion." His  advice  however  was  not  to  be  listened 
to.     "  In  that  case,"  said  Phelps,  "  come  here,  and 


APPRENTICESHIP    AS    AN    ACTOR.  33 

I'll  give  you  two  pounds  (ten  dollars)  a  week  to 
begin  with."  The  young  fellow,  however,  thought 
he  should  get  better  practice  in  the  provinces, — 
and  perhaps  he  was  right. 

Dion  Boucicault  too,  a  man  of  wide  experience 
of  men  and  of  actors,  discerned  at  a  somewhat 
later  period  the  fine  material  of  which  young 
Irving  was  made.  On  the  occasion  of  some  semi- 
private  tlieatricals  of  which  Mr.  Boucicault  had 
the  management,  he  took  steps  to  secure  Irving's 
services  in  London  Assurance,  in  some  part  supe- 
rior to  any  he  was  at  that  time  playing  in  public, 
and  thus  introduced  him  to  a  select  and  judicious 
circle  of  connoisseurs.  Such  a  lift,  however  tran- 
sient in  its  immediate  bearings,  leaves  its  mark  on 
a  man's  career.  Mr.  Irving  has  had  noble  and  in- 
fluential friends  and  he  may  perhaps  have  owed 
them  to  his  personal  demeanor  on  this  occasion  as 
well  as  to  his  dramatic  talent. 


34  HENRY    IRVING. 


CHAPTER   II. 

» 

IRVING    IN    LONDON    TILL     1 878. 

Thus  for  ten  years  had  Henry  Irving  been 
practising  and  rehearsing,  as  it  were,  for  the  Lon- 
don stage  before  he  fairly  set  his  foot  on  the 
boards  of  the  great  city. 

AUhough,  as  we  have  said,  focal  criticism  is 
neither  appreciative  nor  trustworthy,  it  is  quite 
clear  that  the  young  actor's  career  had  not  been 
one  of  constant  disappointment.  He  had  grad- 
ually conquered  the  sympathies  of  audiences 
when  he  had  failed  to  captivate  them,  and  en- 
thralled many  whom  he  had  failed  to  enchant. 
He  had,  no  doubt,  made  many  delicate  experi- 
ments on  their  sensibilities,  and  had  tested  every 
side  of  that  masterful  individuality  which  is  now 
an  instrument  in  his  hands  on  which  he  can  play 
with  the  subtle  devilry  with  which  Paganini  is 
said  to  have  used  his  violin  —  sometimes  insisting 
on  an  unresolved  discord  with  such  emphasis  and 
tenacity    that    the    closing    harmony   is    almost 


irving's  naturalism.  35 

swamped  in  our  ears,  sometimes  rushing  to  the 
very  verge  of  the  gulf,  a  deep  one  for  all  that  it  is 
but  a  step  across,  between  the  sublime  and  the 
ridiculous. 

The  real  art  of  the  actor  consists,  no  doubt,  in 
the  power  of  absolutely  separating  the  ego,  the 
subjective  /,  from  the  objective  / —  the  personal 
physique  in  which  he  has  to  find  all  his  means  of 
expression.  Henry  Irving  appears  from  the  first 
to  have  understood  instinctively  the  limit  line, 
beyond  which  this  divorce  of  the  physical  from 
the  metaphysical  man  cannot  safely  go  —  for  that 
there  is  a  limit  all  the  greatest  actors  seem  to  have 
felt — indeed,  most  of  those  faults  of  trick  and 
manner  which  have  laid  him  open  to  just  criticism 
may  be  referred  to  that  Naturalism  which  inevita- 
bly throws  the  artist  back  on  his  oivn  nature. 
This  may  arise  partly  from  the  reluctance  of  the 
man  to  forego  his  identity  and  so  lose  his  personal 
influence  over  his  audience;  partly,  perhaps,  from 
an  unconscious,  instinctive  craving  for  their  sym- 
pathy Avith  himself,  inside  and  beneath  the  part  he 
acts.  It  is  nevertheless  true  that  for  very  high 
class  acting,  especially  in  unattractive  parts,  total 
self  abnegation  is  sometimes  indispensable.*     But 

*  We  have  seen  Mr.  Anson,  for  instance,  play  Goodman  Scum, 
in  Clancarty,  in  a  way  which  made  any  impulse  of  sympathy  with  the 

3* 


36  HENRY    IRVING. 

we  may  be  sure  that,  in  the  first  instance,  Mr. 
Irving  ching  to  his  identity,  not  merely  from 
instinct  but  from  deliberate  choice ;  and  though, 
now,  his  warmest  admirers  would  be  glad  some- 
times that  it  should  sink  a  little  further  into  the 
background,  its  originality,  power,  and  charm  are 
beyond  denial. 

Having  thus  patiently  and  deliberately  culti- 
vated his  art  —  and  his  nature — Henry  Irving 
first  took  his  place  as  a  London  actor  at  the  St. 
James  Theatre,  October  6th,  1866,  as  Doricourt 
in  the  Belle  s  Stratagem,  and  "Mr.  Henry  Irving's 
performance  gave  the  promise  of  his  being  a 
valuable  accession  to  Miss  Herbert's  company." 
"  He  was  the  fine  gentleman  in  Doricourt ;  but 
he  was  more,  for  his  mad  scenes  were  truthfully 
conceived  and  most  subtly  executed."  (Athe- 
naeum). The  Times,  in  criticising  the  performance 
says  :  "  this  v/ork  is  essentially  a  play  of  one  char- 
acter," Letitia  Hardy,  to  wit,  only  speaking  of 
Doricourt  as  "  heavy  company,  till  he  feigns  mad- 
ness in  the  last  act,  and  the  mock  insanity  repre- 
sented by  Mr.  Irving  is  the  cause  of  considerable 
mirth." 


actor  impossible ;  and  we  frankly  say  that  as  acting  it  was  admirable. 
The  fault  in  art  was  the  author's — to  us  it  is  a  fault  in  art  to  put  a 
purely  repulsive  object  into  any  picture  or  drama. 


FIRST   APPEARANCE — 1866.  37 

Mr.  Irving  seems  to  have  thought  better  of 
Mrs.  Cowley's  comedy  than  the  Times  critic, 
though  it  is  true  that  Miss  Terry  now  fully  divides 
the  honors  with  him  in  it.  Its  revival  in  April, 
1 88 1,  was  a  wonderful  sirccess,  partly  in  conse- 
quence, and  partly  in  spite  of  the  limitation  of  the 
interest  to  the  fate  and  fortunes  of  Letitia  Hardy. 
In  consequence  of  it,  because  the  sparkling  her- 
oine is  played  by  Miss  Terry;  in  spite  of  it, 
because  Mr.  Irving  gives  value  and  importance  to 
the  part  of  Doricourt.  Of  this  revival  the  Satur- 
day Review  says  :  "  it  is  not  too  much  to  call  it 
brilliant.  The  wit,  the  humor,  and  the  courtliness 
of  Mr.  Irving's  Doricourt  were  already  known  to 
many  play-goers.  The  fun  and  grace  of  Miss 
Ellen  Terry's  Letitia  Hardy  approach  as  near  as 
possible  to  perfection.  The  assumption  of  the 
hoiden  seems  to  us  to  be  admirable  alike  in  con- 
ception and  execution,  and  the  piece  is  mounted 
with  excellent  taste  and  discretion." 

The  Belle's  Stratagem  was  followed  in  No- 
vember by  Dion  Boucicault's  Hunted  Down  (for 
the  first  time  in  London),  and  Henry  Irving 
played  the  part  of  Rawdon  Scudamore.  This  role, 
the  always  unpopular  one  of  the  villain  of  the 
piece,  was  far  less  easy  to  "score  in"  than  that  of 
Doricourt,  but  we  read  that  "the  cool   scoundrel 


38  HENRY    IRVING. 

was  made  quite  a  picture  by  the  new  actor  Mr. 
Henry  Irving,  whose  quiet  yet  forcible  manner, 
easy  gestures,  and  expressive  features  give  interest 
to  a  character  by  no  means  attractive."  And 
again  "Rawdon  Scudamore,  a  deliberate  designing 
villain,  serves  to  display  the  talent  of  Mr.  Henry 
Irving  whose  ability  in  depicting  the  most  malig- 
nant feelings  merely  by  dint  of  facial  expression 
is  very  remarkable."  (Times). 

The  Saturday  Rcvieiv,  in  speaking  of  the 
play,  mentions  "  two  very  promising  performers 
entirely  new  to  the  London  stage — Mr.  Irving, 
who  gives  a  very  forcible  and  finished  impersona- 
tion of  the  malignant  husband,  and  Miss  Le 
Thiere." 

In  1867,  TJic  Road  to  Ruin  was  revived  at  the 
same  theatre,  and  Irving  played  Harry  Dornton, 
the  leading  part.  "He  is  as  yet  but  little  known 
to  the  London  public,  and  it  may  be  remarked 
that  though  he  has  not  the  gallant  and  graceful 
bearing  of  our  old  light  comedians,  he  acted, 
especially  in  the  drunken  scenes,  with  intelligence, 
spirit,  and  feeling."  (Observer).  "Mr.  Henry  Ir- 
ving's  Harry  Dornton  is  a  more  than  promising 
performance  by  an  actor  who  has  only  been  known 
to  the  London  public  within  the  last  few  months. 
His  first  appearance  is  excellently  conceived,  and 


VARIOUS    PARTS — I  867.  ,   39 

his  latter  scenes  are  marked  by  a  most  accurate 
delineation  of  that  sort  of  inebriety  which  neither 
brutalizes  nor  stupefies.  Still,  against  the  sub- 
stantial good  qualities  of  Mr.  Irving  is  to  be  set 
off  a  certain  ungainliness  of  manner."  On  Satur- 
day, March  the  2nd,  1867,  A  Rapid  Thaw,  by  T. 
W.  Robertson,  was  produced.  "  It  can  only  be 
regarded  as  a  mistake,"  says  the  Times.  Mr. 
Irving  played  in  it,  but  though  it  was  strongly 
cast  and  admirably  put  on  the  stage  it  had  no 
legs.  It  was  taken  off  and  other  plays  were  re- 
vived for  short  runs  till  Holy-week.  On  Satur- 
day, March  23rd,  Mr.  Irving  played  Joseph 
Surface  in  TJie  School  for  Scandal — we  should 
like  to  see  this  again  —  and  on  March  30th, 
Robert  Macaire. 

His  next  part  was  Count  Falcon,  in  a  new  play 
called  Ida  Ha,  by  George  Roberts.  It  was  pro- 
duced on  Monday,  April  22nd  (Easter  Monday), 
and  held  its  place,  interrupted  only  by  benefit 
nights,  till  the  end  of  the  season,  May  30th. 
"Mr.  Irving  made  a  portrait  of  Count  Falcon, 
acting  steadily,  looking  hard,  ruthless,  and  a 
thorough  Italian."  (Observer). 

The  St.  James  reopened  in  October,  with  Only 
a  Clod ;  Mr.  J.  S.  Clarke,  announced  as  a  "  new 
comedian,"  made  his  first  appearance  a  few  days 


40  HENRY    IRVING. 

after  in  the  IVidoio  Hunt,  still  one  of  his  favorite 
pieces,  and  Mr.  Irving  acted  in  both  these  plays. 
Then  he  had  a  part  in  A  Tale  of  P}-ocida,  and 
appeared  for  the  last  time  at  the  St.  James' 
Theatre,  on  Saturday,  December  2 1st,  1867,  in 
The  ScJwol  of  Reform. 

On  the  1st  of  January,  1868,  Mr.  Irving  was 
acting  at  the  Queen's  Theatre,  Long  Acre,  London, 
in  the  usual  "  acting  edition"  of  The  Taming  of 
the  Shrezv,  known  as  Katharine  and  Petritchio. 
It  was  in  this  play  that  he  first  acted  with  Miss 
Ellen  Terry.  At  this  theatre,  too,  he  again  met 
Mr.  Toole  and  played  with  him  in  Dearer  than 
Life.  Irving  took  the  "ungrateful  part"  of  Bob 
Gassitt,  "a  highly-finished  piece  of  acting."  "Bob 
Gassitt,  the  vulgar  conceited  scamp,  who  has  lured 
the  thoughtless  youth  into  extravagance,  and  who 
affects  to  be  Charlie's  firm  friend  while  he  is 
endeavoring  to  supplant  him  in  the  affections  of 
his  cousin,  is  rendered  exceedingly  effective  by 
Mr.  H.  Irving  who  seems  to  have  found  his 
special  vocation  as  an  artistic  perpetrator  of  all 
sorts  of  stage  villany."  (Daily  Telegraph,  Janu- 
ary nth,  1868).  The  play  had  a  good  run  till 
April  nth,  when  Oliver  Tzuist  was  produced, 
arranged  for  the  stage  by  John  Oxenford,  Mr. 
Irving    playing    the    ruffian.    Bill    Sykes.       "  Mr. 


A    LANCASHIRE    LASS — I  868.  4I 

Irving's  representation  of  Bill  Sykes  is  for  intensity 
of  expression  and  almost  terrible  earnestness, 
something  remarkable."  (Era).  He  took  a  bene- 
fit on  the  1st  of  June,  playing  in  The  School  for 
Scandal,  supported  by  Messrs.  A.  Wigan  and 
Toole ;  and  we  then  lose  sight  of  him  for  a  few 
weeks  when  we  must  hope  he  was  taking  a 
holiday. 

On  July  25th,  he  played  Robert  Redburn  in 
Byron's  drama  of  domestic  interest,  A  Lanca- 
shire Lass.  "  Of  the  gentlemanly  villain  of  whom 
he  is  the  type,  Mr.  Irving  has  made  himself  the 
sole  proper  representative."  (^  7>V;i'r.yj.  "Redburn 
is  a  modern  cigar-smoking  scamp,  and  Mr.  Henry 
Irving,  who  seems  to  have  studied  stage-villany 
as  one  of  the  fine  arts  in  a  manner  that  would 
have  dehghted  de  Quincey,  renders  the  thorough- 
paced scoundrel  in  a  highly  effective  style." 
(Daily  Telegraph). 

The  interest  and  cast  of  A  Lancashire  Lass 
were  strong  enough  to  keep  the  play  on  the 
boards  till  the  end  of  the  year,  and  in  1869,  after 
a  short  holiday.  Dearer  tha?i  Life  was  taken  up 
again  —  "an  excellent  little  drama"  as  the  Satur- 
day Review  called  it  —  in  which  Irving  played  as 
before.  On  February  13th,  Not  Guilty,  a  new 
play  by  Watts  Phillips,   was  produced.      To  Mr. 


42  HENRY    IRVING. 

Irving  was  assigned  the  part  of  Robert  Arnold, 
an  incompris  and  innocent  locksmith  who  is  con- 
victed for  a  theft  he  has  not  committed,  and  at 
last  triumphantly  vindicated.  "  Mr.  Irving,  who 
is  here  directed  into  more  virtuous  paths  than 
those  he  has  lately  trodden  on  the  stage,  seems 
scarcely  yet  reconciled  to  the  utterance  of  noble 
sentiments ;  but  his  impersonation  of  Robert  Ar- 
nold is  marked  by  all  his  wonted  earnestness  and 
discrimination."  It  ran  for  about  six  weeks,  with 
the  Spitalfields  Weaver,  a  small  play  in  which 
Mr.  Irving  also  had  a  part. 

On  the  occasion  of  his  benefit,  March  19th, 
1869,  Mr.  Irving  came  before  the  London  public 
in  a  new  role.  He  had  acted  a  few  days  pre- 
viously in  She  Stoops  to  Conquer  for  Mr.  Lionel 
Blough,  and  the  company  now  returned  the  com- 
pliment by  supporting  him  in  Plot  and  Passion, 
in  which  he  acted  de  Neuville.  When  the  Queen's 
closed,  Mr.  Blough,  Mr.  J.  L.  Toole,  and  Mr.  Irving 
took  Dearer  than  Life,  bodily  so  to  speak,  to  the 
Standard  Theatre,  an  unfashionable  house  in  a 
poor  part  of  London  where  the  audiences  make 
up  by  enthusiasm  for  the  absence  of  refinement. 
But  they  are  sympathetic  to  play  to,  especially  in 
pieces  which  appeal  to  their  moral  sense  of  do- 
mestic virtue,  and  Oliver  Twist,  Dot,  (an   adapta- 


DRURY    LANE   THEATRE — I  869.  43 

tion  of  The  Cricket  on  tJie Heaj'th,  by  C.  Dickens) — 
in  which  Irving  played  Peerybingle,  and  small 
pieces  were  acted  there  throughout  the  spring 
season  of  1869,  till  early  in  May. 

In  June  the  company  went  to  the  Surrey, 
another  large  and  strictly  ungenteel  theatre,  where 
Mr.  Irving  played  Robert  Macaire  for  his  benefit, 
July  6th.  From  July  12th,  Mr.  Irving  played  for 
three  weeks  at  the  Haymarket,  opened  by  Miss 
Amy  Sedgwick  for  a  sort  of  supplementary  season 
to  produce  All  for  Money,  written  by  Miss  Le 
Thiere.  "  Mr.  Henry  Irving,"  says  the  Daily 
Telegraph,  "  as  the  grasping  dissolute  captain 
Fitzhubert,  gives  us  a  graphic  picture  of  a  spe- 
cious selfish  rogue  of  advanced  years,  who 
throughout  his  life  has  made  the  world  his  prey." 

In  August  Mr.  Irving  again  "  created  "  a  part 
(played  it,  that  is  to  say,  for  the  first  time)  in  a 
new  play  by  Boucicault :  Compton  Kew  in  For- 
mosa at  Drury  Lane  ;  once  more  "  a  plausible  vil- 
lain," and  he  remained  at  this  famous  old  house  till 
the  pantomime  was  put  on  for  the  Christmas  holi- 
days when  he  rejoined  his  friend  and  ally  Mr. 
Toole  at  the  Gaiety,  to  play  Mr.  Chevenix,  a  part 
in  Uncle  Dick' s  Darling,  "with  great  care."  The 
play  was  well  cast  and  had  a  good  run  till  April, 
1870. 


44  HENRY    IRVING. 

Alfred  Skimmington  was  his  next  part,  in  For 
Love  or  Money,  a  comedy  with  which  Messrs.  Mon- 
tague, James,  and  Thorne  opened  the  new  Vaude- 
ville Theatre  in  London,  April  i6th,  1870.  This 
play  had  "  no  substantial  character,"  it  was  how- 
ever kept  on  the  stage  till  the  production  of  The 
Two  Roses,  a  really  capital  comedy  by  Albery, 
which  was  at  once  made  famous  by  the  acting  of 
Messrs.  Irving,  James,  and  Honey.  "  The  preten- 
tious humbug  Digby  Grant  is  portrayed  by  Mr. 
H.  Irving  with  all  the  touches  of  a  finished  artist 
whose  long  practice  has  enabled  him  to  give  a 
vivid  coloring  to  portraitures  of  this  description. 
This  latest  embodiment  is  singularly  perfect." 
(Daily  Telegraph).  "  The  selfish  arrogance,  the 
stuck-up  hauteur,  the  transparent  hypocrisy,  and 
the  utter  heartlessness  of  the  character,  made  all 
the  more  odious  from  the  assumption  of  sanctity, 
were  depicted  by  Mr.  Irving  with  exquisite  truth- 
fulness of  detail,  and  admirable  brilliancy  and 
vigor  of  effect.  His  make-up  for  the  part  was  ex- 
cellent, and  his  whole  performance  spirited,  char- 
acteristic, and  life-like."   (Morning  Post). 

"The  actor's  first  great  part  in  London," 
wrote  Mr.  Frederick  Wedmore  some  years  later, 
"  fitted  Mr.  Irving  exactly,  for  while  it  displayed 
his  merits  it  concealed   his   defects.     The   needy 


DIGBY    GRANT — 187O.  45 

proud  man  was  forever  posing,  forever  playing  a 
part;  and  not  till  Mr.  Irving  had  passed  from  this 
part  into  some  other,  did  we  perceive  what  his 
own  difficulty  was  in  being  quite  natural."  This 
is  to  a   great  extent  true,   nevertheless : 

"  Digby  Grant  as  presented  by  Mr.  Irving  de- 
serves to  rank  as  a  creation,  and  as  a  picture  of 
self-satisfied,  vaporous  meanness;  the  performance 
is  admirable."    ( Athcnacicui). 

"  Mr.  Irving's  Digby  Grant  is  a  figure  oi genre, 
profoundly  understood  and  perfectly  executed,  and 
*  *  his  extraordinarily  powerful  study  of  a  ty- 
pical blackguard  of  society  makes  other  studies 
seem  weaker  than  they  really  are.  *  *  The 
Digby  Grant  of  the  Tzuo  Roses  has  the  finish,  the 
expressiveness,  and  the  clearness  of  a  Meisson- 
nier.  The  satire  of  the  play  is  masculine,  and  so 
is  its  emotion,  though  that  does  not  happen  to  ac- 
cord with  the  passing  fashion  for  the  languid,  and 
the  momentary  preference  for  the  indifferent  and 
limp."  (Academy,  on  the  revival,  December, 
1881). 

This  play,  which  was  most  successful  and  has 
been  since  revived  more  than  once,  kept  the  stage 
with  the  original  cast  till  the  middle  of  May,  1871, 
when  the  management  changed  hands,  Mr.  Mon- 
tague seceding,  and  Mr.  Irving  played  there  no 


46  HENRY    IRVING. 

more ;  he  has  occasionally  acted  the  part  since  for 
benefits,  and  revived  it  for  awhile  in  December, 
1881. 

The  top  wave  however  of  Mr.  Irving's  tide  of 
fortune  may  be  said  to  have  been  that  which 
landed  him  in  the  Lyceum  Theatre  in  1871.  The 
late  Mr.  H.  L.  Bateman  (formerly  of  this  city)  was 
the  manager.  "To  Mr.  Bateman,"  says  the  Sattir- 
day  Review,  "belongs  the  credit  of  reviving  a 
genuine  taste  for  Shakespeare  in  the  London  pub- 
lic;" but  it  remarks,  and  very  justly,  that  he  was 
primarily  guilty  of  introducing  into  England  a 
system  of  puffing  advertisement  which  had  al- 
ready for  some  time  been  customary,  —  and  not 
let  us  add,  altogether  creditable  to  our  taste, — 
on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic,  whence  Mr.  Bateman 
imported  it.  Mr.  Bateman  certainly  did  from  the 
earliest  days  of  his  management,  show  this  ten- 
dency towards  puffing  advertisement ;  but  as  his 
prosperity  was  better  assured  on  the  one  hand, — 
and  as,  on  the  other,  he  was  far  out-crowed  by 
others  on  his  own  midden, — this  weakness  became 
less  conspicuous  and  objectionable,  and  at  any  rate 
he  always  had  the  credit  of  keeping  his  self-lauda- 
tory promises. 

The  first  part  that  Irving  played  on  a  stage 
which    has  since   been   the   scene   of   many  sue- 


LANDRY    BARBEAU — 1870.  47 

cesses, — more  or  less  qualified,  no  doubt,  by  ad- 
verse criticism, — of  some  genuine  triumphs  and  of 
very  few  failures,  in  the  pecuniary  sense  at  any 
rate,  was  that  of  Landry  in  a  play  called  Fan- 
chctte,  adapted  from  a  German  piece,  Die  Grille, 
which  Charlotte  Birch,  had  originally  arranged 
for  the  stage  from  George  Sand's  delightful  little 
novel  La  petite  Fadettc.  In  this  piece  Miss  Isabel 
Bateman,  the  manager's  third  daughter,  made  a 
very  successful  debut,  and  Mr.  Irving  "  gave  value 
to  Landry  Barbeau,  her  lover,  by  his  earnest  and 
impressive  manner." 

This  was  on  the  iith  of  September.  On  the 
22d  of  October,  an  arrangement  for  the  stage  of 
scenes  from  Pickwick,  by  Mr.  Albery,  gave 
Mr.  Irving  an  opening  in  the  farcical  part  of 
Jingle.  "  It  was  really  sad  to  see  such  actors  as 
Mr.  Irving,  Mr.  Addison,  and  Mr.  Belmore,  wast- 
ing themselves  on  such  a  play,"  though  "  in  make- 
up Mr.  Irving  was  Jingle  to  the  life."  (Daily  Tele- 
graph). "  The  full  excellence  of  his  acting  was 
more  than  usually  distinguishable.  His  grotesque 
shabby-genteel  appearance,  —  the  dignified  seren- 
ity with  which  he  pursued  his  ulterior  aims,  —  his 
imperturbable  impudence  and  unblushing  confi- 
dence thoroughly  deserved  the  applause  he  re- 
ceived.     The  little  touch  of  sentiment  in  which 


48  HENRY    IRVING. 

Jingle  acknowledges  the  merits  of  Mr.  Pickwick 
deserves  special  mention."  In  spite  of  just  strict- 
ures on  the  total  absence  of  constructive  skill  in 
the  piece  itself  of  course  it  had  a  good  run.  For 
one  thing,  it  was  the  fashion  in  those  days  to  rank 
Dickens  as  next  only  to  Shakespeare  ;  a  strong  cast 
kept  it  going  till  The  Bells  was  produced.  Then, 
when  Pickwick  was  revived  as  an  afterpiece,  Jingle 
was  played  by  Mr.  Gaston  Murray  till  it  was  re- 
placed by  Raising  the  Wind,  with  Mr.  Irving  as 
Jeremy   Diddler. 

Mr.  Bateman,  of  course,  saw  that  he  had 
taken  a  prize,  and  it  was  in  behalf  of  Mr. 
Irving's  acting  and  his  own  management  that 
he  first  set  the  example  of  printing  as  an  adver- 
tisement extracts  from  the  criticisms  in  the  news- 
papers. It  was  a  masterly  stroke  in  its  way. 
When  the  visitor  in  need  of  amusement  glances 
down  the  list  of  theatres  to  find  an  answer  to  the 
question  :  "  Where  shall  we  go  ?"  a  long  array  of 
laudatory  paragraphs,  with  all  adverse  criticism 
carefully  eliminated,  catches  his  eye  and  cannot 
fail  to  prove  attractive. 

It  was  in  The  Bells — a  tragical  melodrama  as 
we  may  call  it — that  Henry  Irving  achieved  his 
first  great  and  original  success.  In  this  he  may 
really  be  said  to  have  created  a  part  in  a  far  wider 


MATIIIAS — 1871.  49 

and  higher  sense  than  is  commonly  understood  by 
that  misused  word. 

Le  jfuif  Polonais,  a  very  powerful  and  con- 
centrated story  by  MM.  Erckmann-Chatrian 
was  dramatized  into  a  no  less  powerful,  though 
certainly  "one-part"  play  by  Mr.  Leopold  Lewis. 
Whether  Mr.  Lewis  had  taken  a  singularly  judi- 
cious and  sympathetic  measure  of  the  actor  and 
wrote  for  him  ;  or  whether  Mr.  Irving  understood 
what  a  magnificent  opening  the  play  would  afford 
his  particular  vein  of  "eccentricity"  the  present 
writer  knows  not — nor  is  it  important.  The 
actor  and  the  part  are  literally  "  hand  and  glove," 
and,  in  its  way,  Mr.  Irving's  performance  of  Ma- 
thias  in  The  Bells — so  the  play  was  named  —  is  a 
masterpiece  of  art.  It  had  a  run  of  many  weeks 
and  fairly  took  the  town  by  storm.  There  can  be 
no  better  proof  of  the  amazing  force  and  poetry 
of  Mr.  Irving's  conception  of  the  character  of 
Mathias  than  the  way  in  which  his  audiences  lent 
him  the  aid  of  their  own  imagination  in  investing 
it  with  terrors  which  it  is  not  too  much  to  say 
that  no  play  could  dramatically  display,  and  no 
actor  represent  with  any  artistic  fitness.  People 
went  to  see  The  Bells  primed  with  horror,  wound 
up  to  an  acute  pitch  of  sympathetic  prepossession, 
and  from  first  to  last  there  was  not — there  is  not, 

4 


so 


HENRY    IRVING. 


for  it  is  as  fine  a  piece  of  art  as  ever  it  was  —  a 
flaw,  not  a  discord  to  cheat  the  spectators  out  of 
the  fulfilment  of  their  expectation.  Every  antici- 
pation was  fulfilled,  and  they  went  home  saying 
the  play  had  "made  their  flesh  creep,"  "that  they 
should  dream  of  it  for  nights  after."  In  truth  the 
horrors  of  the  story  are  quite  inadequate  to 
account  for  such  a  state  of  feeling,  and  in  Mr. 
Irving's  performance  some  of  the  most  admirable 
moments  are  subtly  blended  with  a  most  delicate 
vein  of  humor,  particularly  in  the  scene  with 
Christian  in  the  second  act  where  he  defies  his 
friend's    penetration    with    a   cool    half-whimsical 

audacity. 

The  Bells  is  therefore  one  of  the  signal  in- 
stances of  what  is  Mr.  Irving's  most  characteristic 
quality :  his  personal  influence  over  his  audience. 
The  whole  of  the  play  from  first  to  last  is  in  his 
hands,  the  love  interest  being  of  secondary  im- 
portance, and  his  power  and  finish  are  equally 
amazing.  In  the  tete-a-tete  with  Christian  espe- 
cially not  a  touch  is  wanting. 

The  Saturday  Review,  one  of  the  best  con- 
ducted of  high-class  London  journals,  had  for 
many  years  steadily  ignored  Mr.  Irving's  efforts, 
or  alluded  to  them  with  the  patronizing  praise 
that  might  be  given  to  a  beginner.      When  the 


MATHIAS — 1871.  51 

Two  Roses  was  produced  it  spoke  well  of  the  play 
and  said  it  was  "well  acted,"  but  made  no  special 
mention  of  Digby  Grant.  However,  when  he 
played  Mathias  there  was  no  doubt  of  his  having 
made  his  mark;  it  was  no  longer  possible  to  over- 
look him.  However  much  his  method  might 
displease  the  adherents  of  the  classical  school,  Mr. 
Irving  had  become  a  fact  to  be  dealt  with  on  his 
own  merits.  "  According  to  the  Manager's  ad- 
vertisement," said  The  Saturday  Review,  "there 
was  a  'startling  unanimity,'  among  the  critics  in 
praising  the  performance.  We  fully  admit  that 
the  praise  was  deserved  ;  but  the  really  startling 
thing  would  have  been  to  find  a  human  creature, 
critical  or  other,  who  desired  to  see  the  perform- 
ance a  second  time.  Happily  there  are  many 
rich  communities  in  which  English  actors  may  ply 
their  calling,  and  if  it  is  admitted  that  everybody 
ought  to  see  any  play  once  the  fortune  of  all 
concerned  in  it  is  tolerably  well  secured.  Thus 
much  we  can  certainly  say  on  behalf  both  of  Mr. 
Irving  and  Miss  Bateman  (in  Leah  and  Medea); 
but  in  neither  case  should  we  expect  that  increase 
of  appetite  should  grow  by  indulgence.  As  the 
Frenchman  said  of  fox-hunting  'I  have  been.'" 
The  Saturday  Review  is  now  a  convert,  and  like 
all  converts,  a  zealot.      "  A  strangely  fascinating 

4* 


52  HENRY    IRVING. 

piece  of  acting  is  this  impersonation  throughout," 
is  what  it  says  of  Mathias  in  1880;  "Increased  art 
and  experience  have  tempered  impulse  with 
strongly-marked  improvement"  since  1872. 

It  was  in  April,  1872,  that  the  farce  of  Raising 
the  Wind  was  revived  for  Mr.  Irving  to  take  the 
part  of  Jeremy  Diddler.  The  flippant,  self-suffi- 
cient, shifty  adventurer  was  amusingly  repre- 
sented ;  but  such  a  role  is  in  no  respect  calculated 
to  do  the  actor  justice,  and  to  tell  the  truth  his 
farcical  importance  was  somewhat  over  done ;  as 
an  acute  and  experienced  critic  observed:  "he 
played  it  no  better  than  any  one  else  would  have 
done" — in  truth  the  final  cause  of  a  Nasmyth 
hammer  is  not  to  crack  nuts,  for  all  that  it  cracks 
them  so  neatly.  However  it  served  to  display  his 
agile  versatility :  "  Mr.  Irving's  triumph  is  great. 
At  one  moment  as  Mathias  he  keeps  his  audience 
spellbound  by  the  terrible  picture  he  presents  to 
them  of  a  conscience-stricken  murderer,  and  the 
next  excites  uproarious  laughter  by  his  ingenious 
devices  as  the  gay  and  gifted  Jeremy."  (AtJie- 
naenm,  April,  1872). 

After  playing  Mathias  one  hundred  and  fifty 
nights  Mr.  Irving  took  a  benefit  on  the  hundred  and 
fifty-first.  May  14,  1872,  and  left  town  for  a  time. 

His  next  great    part    was    that  of  Charles  I. 


CHARLES   I. —  1872.  53 

in  a  play,  so  named,  by  W.  G.  Wills.  The 
pathos  of  the  situations  was  very  strong,  espe- 
cially in  the  last  act ;  and  this,  added  to  Mr.  Ir- 
ving's  elegant  and  dignified  aspect,  served  to 
plunge  the  audience  into  a  luxury  of  woe,  which 
tempted  crowded  houses  to  see  it,  both  then,  and 
later  when  it  was  revived.  His  make-up  was  so 
like  the  portraits  of  the  King  that  it  might 
have  been  one  of  them  endowed  with  life  and 
speech.  "  Through  Charles  I.  runs  a  melancholy 
beauty  which  finds  expression  in  many  musical 
passages,  and  which  intensifies  as  the  play  pro- 
ceeds into  absolute  pain.  During  the  last  act  there 
was  hardly  a  dry  eye  in  the  house.  Women  sob- 
bed openly,  and  even  men  showed  an  emotion 
which  comported  ill  with  the  habitual  serenity  of 
the  stalls.  Much  of  this  uncomfortable  gratifica- 
tion was  due  to  the  acting  of  Mr.  Irving,  the  hero 
of  the  play.  *  *  *  Nothing  more  regal  can 
be  desired  than  his  bearing,  nothing  more  har- 
monious than  the  effect  of  every  look  and  gesture, 
nothing  more  touching  than  his  delivery  of  the 
poetic  beauties  that  abound.  From  the  outward 
appearance  of  the  King  down  to  each  little  detail 
of  posture  everything  is  elaborated  with  con- 
scientious care,  and  the  result  is  a  vivid  creation  of 
art."    (Daily  News). 


54  HENRY   IRVING. 

"  Etude  dramatique"  the  words  used  by  MM. 
Erckmann-Chatrian  to  qualify  Le  Juif  Polonais, 
might  with  advantage  have  been  employed  to 
characterize  this  work.  "  Dramatically  speaking 
the  play  is  above  the  average  work  of  the  kind 
that  we  have  met  with  for  some  years.  The  char- 
acter of  Oliver  Cromwell,  it  is  true,  would  have 
proved  a  better  foil  to  Charles  had  he  seemed  a 
worthier  foe.  In  the  scenes  where  they  are 
brought  face  to  face,  admiration  is  claimed  for  the 
King  and  contempt  for  his  rival.  *  *  The  situ- 
ation at  the  close  of  the  third  act,  where  Crom- 
well's soldiers  are  faced  by  the  gentlemen  from  the 
Temple  and  Lincoln's  Inn,  has  genuine  dramatic 
fire.  In  general  the  interpretation  of  the  part  by 
Mr.  Irving  was  excellent.  Seldom,  indeed,  of  late 
has  a  piece  of  equally  fine  acting  been  seen  on  the 
London  stage.  It  is  satisfactory  to  find  an  actor 
who  can  wear  a  court  suit  and  look  a  gentleman. — 
Mr.  Irving  did  more  ;  he  realized  fully  the  con- 
ception of  his  author." 

The  Saturday  Review  dealt  very  severely  with 
Charles  I.  as  a  historical  play.  "  It  seems,"  says 
the  critic,  '*  to  have  occurred  to  some  artist  in 
theatrical  costume  that  Mr.  Irving  might  be  made 
up  into  a  tolerable  imitation  of  the  portraits  of 
Charles  I.     *     *     It  is  to  be  feared  that  the  his- 


CHARLES    I. —  1872.  55 

torian  of  Cromwell  (the  author  of  Sartar  Resartiis) 
might  pronounce  the  drama  of  Charles  I.  a  mere 
affair  of  clothes.  *  *  Nevertheless  author 
and  actor  are  entitled  to  the  credit  of  having 
achieved  a  very  considerable  success  by  means 
which  may  be  fairly  called  legitimate."  And  when 
the  play  was  revived  a  few  years  later  the  same 
journal  goes  on  to  say  that:  "Mr.  Irving  performs 
a  remarkable  feat  in  giving  interest  to  the  puerile 
and  monstrous  scene  between  Charles  and  Crom- 
well,—  a  scene  in  which  the  two  most  prominent 
figures  of  the  time  are  perhaps  more  grossly  misrep- 
resented than  they  have  ever  been  before,  even  in 
history."  Mr.  Irving's  acting  alone  could  have 
carried  this  piece  through,  the  poetry,  grace,  and 
dignity  with  which  he  performed  the  part  of  the 
King  "  suggests,"  says  the  Daily  Telegraph,  "  a 
mind  and  character  which  may  be  false  to  history 
but  M^hich  are  nevertheless  very  interesting  and 
beautiful !"  "  In  asking  whether  the  play  is  good  or 
bad  we  presume  the  public  means  is  it  worth  go- 
ing to  see,  and  this  may  be  immediately  answered 
in  the  affirmative  though  the  effect  on  the  audi- 
ence is,  no  doubt,  depressing."  Miss  Isabel  Bate- 
man  was  careful,  graceful,  sweet,  pathetic, —  but 
not  equal  to  the  part  which  Miss  Terry  now  fills 
with  so  much  womanly  pathos  and  queenly  dignity. 


56  HENRY   IRVING. 

This  play  kept  the  stage  for  nearly  seven 
months  and  was  succeeded  in  April,  1873,  by 
another  work  by  W.  G.  Wills:  Eiigc^ie  Aram. 
The  part  for  Mr.  Irving  was  one  of  those  in  which 
almost  the  whole  responsibility  of  the  play  rested 
on  him  ;  and  here  again  it  was  in  the  passages 
where  passion  carried  him  above  and  beyond  the 
real  scene  around  him  that  he  rose  to  the  greatest 
height.  In  Mathias  he  had  shown  us  terror,  in 
Eugene  Aram  he  is  a  prey  to  despair, —  despair  at 
bay  in  the  scene  where  he  defies  his  persecutor 
Houseman;  despair,  broken-hearted  when  he  dies 
after  confessing  his  crime  to  his  betrothed.  "  It 
is  not  easy  to  see  what  can  have  commended  the 
story  of  Eugene  Aram  to  Mr.  Wills  for  dramatic 
purposes.  It  is,  of  course  possible  to  elevate  to 
importance  almost  any  materials  or  subject  what- 
ever. But  Eugene  Aram's  crime  was  common- 
place and  repellent,  and  the  only  process  by  which 
it  can  be  invested  with  force,  dignity,  or  interest 
is,  in  fact,  that  which  Mr.  Wills  has  adopted,  a 
complete  departure  from  the  facts."  "Mr.  Irving 
has  conceived  the  character  and  situation  of  Aram 
with  elaborate  care  and  great  power."  [Daily  Tele- 
graph). "  Commencing  quietly  in  the  first  act, 
Mr.  Irving  rises  to  a  marvellous  exhibition  of 
power  in  the  second,  and  ends  in  the  third  by  the 


EUGENE    ARAM — 1873.'  57 

wildest  exaggeration  and  extravagance.  What 
service  he  might  render  to  the  stage  is  shown  by 
his  splendid  defiance  of  his  enemy  in  the  second 
act  and  his  adjuration  at  the  commencement  of 
the  third.  If  in  these  things  Mr.  Irving  goes 
beyond  most  living  English  actors,  it  is  lamentable 
to  see  that  he  subsequently  falls  into  excesses 
wholly  unpardonable.  He  is  insensible  to  the 
virtue  of  repose.  Sensible  that  his  power  of  facial 
play  is  remarkable  he  makes  constant  demands 
upon  it,  and  his  gesticulation  passes  far  beyond 
the  bounds  of  the  permissible  in  art.  This  is  the 
more  deplorable  as  Mr.  Irving's  power  and  talent 
are  both  genuine.  *  *  But  the  applause  of 
ignorant  crowds  is  terribly  misleading.  *  *  * 
The  reception  of  the  play  was  triumphant,  and  in 
spite  of  the  almost  sepulchral  character  of  the 
interest,  and  in  spite  of — or  perhaps  by  reason 
of — the  faults  of  the  actor,  it  will  probably  enjoy 
an  extended  popularity."  We  believe  that  riper 
judgment  has  much  modified  the  errors  of  excess 
here  pointed  out.  Mr.  Irving  has  always  liked 
the  part,  perhaps  for  the  sake  of  the  tender  feeling 
and  complex  motive  of  the  first  act  quite  as 
much  as  for  the  painful  display  of  the  third. 
Some  time  before  he  acted  the  part  we  find  that 
he  had  recited  Hood's  ballad  at  a  reading  for  a 


58  HENRY    IRVING. 

benefit,  and  we  cannot  but  fancy  that  he  must 
have  had  some  share  in  suggesting  those  altera- 
tions in  the  story  which  lend  it  plot  and  pathos. 

In  the  autumn  of  1873  Irving  once  more  took 
up  a  historical  part.  Lytton  Bulwer's  Richelieu 
was  revived  at  the  Lyceum  and,  as  in  Charles  I., 
Irving  engaged  the  interest  of  the  public  from  the 
moment  he  appeared  upon  the  stage,  by  the 
wonderful  success  of  his  whole  "make-up"  as  the 
Cardinal ;  he  had  carefully  studied  the  best  por- 
traits and  his  resemblance  to  the  most  famous  of 
them  (that  by  Philippe  Champagne  in  the  National 
Gallery,  London)  must  strike  any  one  who  has 
seen  it.  In  Richelieu  some  of  the  actor's  favorite 
tricks  and  mannerisms  are  provokingly  conspicu- 
ous,— for  instance  the  rumpling  of  Francois'  hair 
in  the  third  act,  where  the  stage  direction  is  ''Pat- 
ting his  locks,''  and  the  sudden  and  almost  cynical 
descent  to  colloquial  commonplace  from  really 
tragic  heights, —  but  the  conception  of  the  part  is 
nevertheless  very  grand ;  dignified  and  domineer- 
ing, Irving  in  his  robe  of  scarlet  and  lace  looks 
taller  than  usual,  as  if  he  had  grown  to  his  emi- 
nence. 

"  Richelieu  is  an  Argus; 

"  One  of  his  hundred  eyes  will  light  upon  us 

"  And  then,  —  good-bye  to  life." 


1 


RICHELIEU — 1873.  59 

Irving  himself  had  spoken  of  him  thus  seven- 
teen years  before  on  the  boards  of  an  obscure 
provincial  theatre  (oddly  enough  also  named  the 
Lyceum)  in  the  modest  part  of  Orleans,  and  had, 
we  may  be  sure,  keenly  watched,  and  no  less  keenly 
criticised,  the  performance  of  his  chief,  Mr.  Davis 
of  Sunderland,  as  the  Cardinal.  He  had  seen 
other  and  greater  actors  play  it  since,  and  as 
many  men  have  acted  it  well  it  was  perhaps  a  pe- 
culiar temptation  to  one  whose  confidence  in  his 
personality  is  so  strong  as  Mr.  Irving's  to  try  how 
far  a  considerable  infusion  of  it  might  tell  in  his 
presentment  of  the  Cardinal.  The  natural  conse- 
quence was  that,  though  full  of  grand  and  im- 
pressive passages,  it  was  undoubtedly  marred  by 
the  bathos  of  which  we  have  spoken.  The  Satur- 
day Review  spoke  of  it  with  excellent  judgment, 
but  it  was  once  more  "  down"  on  Mr.  Bateman. 
"  The  clever  actor  who  has  undertaken  the  part  of 
Richelieu  is  supported  by  a  manager  skilled  in  the 
art  of  advertising.  *  *  It  is  rather  hard  that 
we  cannot  bestow  applause  which  is  certainly  well 
deserved,  without  being  described  as  endorsing  a 
profound  impression.  *  *  Perhaps  we  cannot 
better  gauge  the  decline  of  the  national  theatre 
than  by  observing  that  Mr.  Bateman,  with  his 
'archaeological     columns'     has     succeeded     Mr. 


6o 


HENRY   IRVING. 


Macready  as  the  manager  who  produces  Richelieu. 
The  play  was  brought  out  in  1839  at  Covent  Gar- 
den, with  Macready  as  the  Cardinal.  *  *  We 
have  no  fault  to  find  with  Mr.  Irving's  perform- 
ance of  Richelieu,  nor  do  we  think  it  calls  for  ex- 
travagant commendation.  The  curse  of  Rome, 
one  of  the  finest  passages  in  the  play,  has  been 
selected  for  special  laudation  by  Mr.  Irving's 
critics,  and  all  we  have  to  say  upon  it  is  that  Mr. 
Irving  will  do  well  not  to  strive  too  much  for  this 
kind  of  commendation.  *  *  There  is  a  strain- 
ing after  effect  that  is  sometimes  rather  painful." 

"  Genuine  interest,"  says  Mr.  Frederick  Wed- 
more,  a   conscientious   and  judicious  critic,    "  has 
been  taken  and  will  continue  to  be   taken   in   this 
performance  of  Mr.    Irving's  at  the   Lyceum — a 
theatre  to  which  people  do  not  go  so   much  with 
the  questions :   '  Is  the  play  good  ?  What  of  the 
mise-en-scener — for  that  is  almost  known  before- 
hand— as   with  the  enquiry  how  Mr.  Irving  has 
again  acquitted  himself     *     *     *     i  fear  it  is  the 
tendency  of  Mr.  Henry  Irving  to  be  a  little  spoilt 
by  the  indiscriminate  applause  of  the  groundlings, 
who  are  better  judges  whether  a  passion  is  violent 
than  whether  it  is  natural  and  appropriate.      He 
shows  no  tendency  to  be  spoilt  in  the  vulgar  way. 
With  him  nothing  is  slurred,  nothing  is  careless  ; 


RICHELIEU — 1873.  61 

he  is  as  completely  absorbed  in  his  part  and  as 
completely  devoted  to  it  on  the  hundredth  night  of 
the  performance  as  on  the  first.  *  *  But  he  is  per- 
haps inclined  to  pitch  his  performance  in  too  high 
a  key,  or  to  break  into  a  high  key  when  there  is  no 
reason  for  it,  —  in  a  word  he  shows  a  tendency  to 
exaggeration.  No  one  should  object  to  the  hor- 
ror of  The  Bells;  the  circumstances  require  it. 
No  one  has  anything  but  praise  for  the  pathos  of 
Charles  the  First  and  the  subtle  rascality  of  The 
Tzvo  Roses;  but  in  Eugene  Aram  he  dies  nine 
deaths, —  his  final  release  cannot  possibly  be  a 
greater  comfort  to  him  than  it  is  to  ourselves, — 
and  in  Richelieu  the  outbreak  of  his  rage  is  ex- 
cessive" (this  was  written  ten  years  since,  when 
Mr.  Irving's  judgment  was  "greener"  than  it  is 
now).  "  But  fortunately  there  are  two  circum- 
stances which  do  mark  him  out  as  a  unique  and 
illustrious  artist.  First,  there  are  many  moments 
when  the  high  passion  does  not  go  wrong;  and 
secondly,  there  are  the  longer  and,  of  course 
more  numerous,  periods  when,  vehemence  and  ex- 
citement being  out  of  the  question,  there  is  room 
for  the  uninterrupted  display  of  sagacious  judg- 
ment and  serious  thoughtful  art.  The  touches  of 
quiet  art  are  very  numerous  and  very  admirable. 
A  hundred  touches  go  to  make  up  this  picture  of 


62  HENRY    IRVING. 

Richelieu,  and  I  ask  the  spectator  to  notice  par- 
ticularly one  subtle  moment  of  gesture  and  ex- 
pression when  the  Cardinal,  having  forgiven  Mau- 
prat  and  granted  him  the  hand  of  Julie,  cannot 
listen  to  his  thanks.  *  *  *  Personal  pleasure, 
personal  good- will !  —  there  is  no  room  for  these 
in  Richelieu's  life,  when  he  is  busied  with  a  thou- 
sand affairs.  It  is  by  touches  of  character  like  this 
that  an  actor  earns  that  title  to  greatness  which, 
with  all  his  failings,  cannot,  I  think,  be  justly  de- 
nied to  Mr.  Irving." 

"The  fact  is,"  says  The  Athenaeum,  "that, 
rightly  or  wrongly  the  public  accepts  Mr.  Henry 
Irving  as  the  coming  actor,  and  attends  with  min- 
gled curiosity  and  interest  each  successive  manifes- 
tation of  his  powers.  Very  few  performances  have 
sufficed  to  elevate  him  to  the  position  he  now  oc- 
cupies; Mathias,  Charles  I.,  and  Eugene  Aram,  are 
the  only  characters  in  which  an  opportunity  of 
testing  his  powers  has  been  afforded.  Each  im- 
personation however  has  been  the  subject  of  ex- 
cited comment  and  criticism ;  and  the  spectacle, 
unusual  in  England,  has  been  afforded  of  an  artist 
going  through  a  series  of  debuts.  When  Mr.  Ir- 
ving appeared  as  Richelieu  excitement  was  at  the 
height.  *  *  Mr.  Irving  has  much  to  qualify 
him  for  bearing  off  the  prizes  of  the  stage,  and  his 


RICHELIEU — 1873.  63 

right  to  a  position  in  the  front  rank  of  such  actors 
as  we  have,  cannot  be  contested.  His  figure  is 
commanding ;  his  face  is  expressive ;  his  hands 
alone  have  more  intelHgence  and  power  of  expres- 
sion than  most  of  the  so-called  tragedians  can  im- 
part to  their  entire  face  and  figure ;  and  his  voice 
is  deep  and  powerful,  and  capable  of  being 
charged  with  passion  and  pathos.  Against  these 
eminent  advantages  we  have  to  rank  as  distinctly 
developed  defects,  a  mannerism  which  augments 
with  each  successive  impersonation  and  a  tendency 
to  rant.  Few  actors,  however,  are  wholly  free 
from  mannerism  ;  the  propensity  to  rant  is  a  more 
serious  drawback.  *  *  His  Richelieu  is  splen- 
didly picturesque  *  *  but  in  the  scenes  which 
call  for  the  display  of  passion  Mr.  Irving  supplies 
its  place  with  noise.  Here  is  the  blot.  Passion  is 
not  loud.  If  we  strike  out  from  Mr.  Irving's  imper- 
sonation two  scenes  in  which  this  violence  reaches 
the  climax,  the  whole  extorts  admiration."  "The 
facts,"  says  Mr.  Wedmore,  "that  Mr.  Irving  in 
quiet  moments  is  sometimes  very  artificial  and  that 
he  carries  into  each  part  his  own  mannerism, — 
the-jueasured  step,  the  drawl,  and  in  moments  of 
excitement  and  passion,  the  high  scream,  which  is 
terribly  womanish, —  should  not  blind  us  to  the 
truth  that  all  these  faults  are  not  the  body  of  his 


64  HENRY    IRVING. 

acting,  but  the  morbid  growth  upon  it.  *  *  * 
It  is  the  suggestiveness  and  thoughtfulness  of  his 
acting  that  make  its  real  value  and  most  lasting 
charm." 

In  July,  1875,  when  the  piece  was  again  put 
upon  the  stage,  the  same  judicious  critic  tells  us 
that  "  Mr.  Irving's  Richelieu  is  changed  and  bet- 
tered. We  will  not  say  he  never  raves,  but  he  raves 
less.  He  brings  the  piece  into  accordance  with  his 
physical  means,  and  it  gains  in  dignity.  *  *  It 
is  a  picture  of  many  sides  of  Richelieu's  life  in  his 
old  age,  which  Lord  Lytton  outlines  and  Mr. 
Irving  fills  up;  and  it  is  the  actor's  admirable 
work  that  interests  you  entirely  in  the  charac- 
ter." 

We  have  given  the  critiques  of  the  time  on 
Irving's  performance  of  Richelieu  at  somewhat 
greater  length  than  may  seem  necessary,  since  the 
part  of  the  Cardinal  is  not  on  the  list  of  those  he 
will  act  here.  But  it  was  the  first  part  he  played 
in  which  he  provoked  comparison  with  the  great 
men  gone  before.  Mathias,  Charles  I.,  and  Eugene 
Aram,  had  been  written  for  him  and  fitted  to  his 
powers  with  more  or  less  success.  His  critics,  as 
they  watched  him  play  Richelieu,  thought  of 
Macready,  the  first  representative,  Charles  Kean, 
Phelps,  and  Vezin;   and  though,  in  some  respects. 


PHILIP — 1874.  65 

theirs  may  seem  to  have  been  negative  merits 
where  Irving's  were  brilhant  mistakes,  they  may 
very  reasonably  have  felt,  —  as  we  some  of  us  still 
feel  when  we  listen  to  Wagner,  —  a  lurking  prefer- 
ence for  the  trustworthy  methods  of  an  earlier 
phase  of  art. 

The  long  extracts  here  given  seem  to  us  not 
only  remarkably  fair  but  judicious.  The  nine 
years  of  Mr.  Irving's  life  since,  have  remedied  cer- 
tain of  his  defects  and  corrected  some  of  his  faults; 
his  voice  has  gained  in  weight  and  so  he  has 
ceased  to  rant,  and  while  he  has  lost  a  little  in 
youth  he  has  gained  something  in  seriousness  and 
style.  The  touch  of  character  spoken  of  above 
has  its  parallel  in  a  thousand  others  in  every  part  he 
plays,  his  face,  his  hands,  and  his  figure  are  as  plas- 
tic as  ever ;  but  then  the  man  himself,  his  qualities 
and  his  defects  are  also  the  same  and  the  critiques 
written  then  are,  with  due  abatement,  equally 
valid  now,  alike  for  good  and  for  evil. 

On  Saturday,  February  7,  1874,  a  romantic 
drama  was  produced  by  Mr.  Bateman,  written  by 
Mr.  Hamilton  Aide,  and  called  "Philip,"  in  which 
Mr.  Irving  played  the  title  part.  The  original 
story  is  to  be  found  in  Balzac's  Scenes  de  la  Vie 
privee,  and  is  entitled  La  Grande  Breteche.  Al- 
though the   plot,  strictly  speaking,  is  brought  to 

5 


66  HENRY    IRVING. 

naught  and  the  play  ends  without  bloodshed,  it 
is  still  but  a  dismal  legend  to  put  upon  the  stage. 
It  was  however  very  ingeniously  dealt  with.  Philip 
himself,  the  hero  is  a  model  of  stage  virtue,  but 
for  being  inordinately  jealous;  his  half-brother 
Juan  is  the  incarnation  of  vice.  Philip,  to  protect 
the  girl  they  both  love,  from  his  brother's  dishon- 
orable suit,  fires  at  Juan  who  falls  shot,  and,  as 
Philip  believes,  mortally  wounded.  After  eight 
years  spent  in  gloomy  remorse,  Philip  once  more 
meets  his  early  love  and-  marries  her;  but  in  the 
third  act  Juan  reappears,  and  renews  his  addresses 
to  Marie  under  such  critical  circumstances  that  he 
has  to  take  refuge  in  an  oratory  when  Philip 
comes  into  his  wife's  room,  and  Philip,  suspecting 
his  wife  of  having  concealed  a  lover,  sends  for  a 
mason  to  brick  up  the  entrance  to  it.  However, 
before  it  is  done  he  changes  his  mind,  and  follows 
the  stranger  pistols  in  hand.  His  indignation  at 
finding  him  there  is  mitigated  by  his  relief  at  dis- 
covering that  his  brother  is  still  alive.  He  forgives 
him  (what  for  ?)  but  very  properly  dismisses  him 
from  the  premises.  An  uncomfortable  doubt  how- 
ever lingers  in  the  mind  of  the  audience  as  to  the 
genuineness  of  this  display  of  magnanimity  on 
Philip's  part,  since  they  see  Juan  packed  off 
through  a  window  where  they  happen  to  know 


PHILIP — 1874.  6^ 

that  a  man  has  been  posted  Avith  general  orders 
to  shoot  any  one  he  sees  leaving  the  house. 

Mr.  Irving  seems  to  have  done  well,  nay  won- 
ders, with  the  inconsequent  and  incoherent  char- 
acter of  Philip.  "  It  stands  forth,"  says  the  Daily 
TclegrapJi,  "  among  this  accomplished  actor's 
finest  creations."  And  the  Athenaeum  speaks  of  his 
interpretation  as  good  throughout.  The  Academy 
makes  this  performance  the  occasion  for  a  very 
discriminating  comparison  between  the  methods  of 
Mr.  Phelps — then  playing  Sir  Anthony  Absolute 
in  The  Rivals — a  champion,  as  we  may  say,  of 
the  older  school,  and  of  Mr.  Irving,  the  brilliant 
pioneer  of  a  new  one. 

"  Intellectual  subtlety  united  with  sobriety  and 
a  measured  employment  of  the  physical  means, — 
that  is  perhaps  the  characteristic  of  the  old  school 
of  acting  of  which  Mr.  Phelps  has  now  for  many 
years  been  the  accredited  representative.  Intellec- 
tual subtlety,  not  seldom  overshadowed  by  new 
and  unaccustomed  violence  and  passion, —  that  is 
perhaps  the  characteristic  of  the  strenuous  school 
of  which  Mr.  Henry  Irving  is  easily  the  chief  *  * 
Mr.  Phelps  in  TJie  Rivals,  Mr.  Irving  in  Philip, — 
here  is  food  for  much  curious  consideration  of  the 
stage.  Mr.  Phelps,  as  is  his  wont,  appears  in  a 
character   which  he  has  chiefly  to  interpret,  and 

s  * 


68  HENRY    IRVING. 

Mr.  Irving  in  a  character  he  has  chiefly  to 
create.  *  *  His  inventive  faculty  is  both  great 
and  delicate.  His  acting  is  always  worthy  of  care- 
ful discussion,  for  if  it  is  often  disappointing  it  is 
oftener  in  the  highest  degree  suggestive."  The 
whole  critique  is  too  long  to  quote,  especially  as 
it  bears  upon  a  play  which,  so  far  as  we  know, 
Mr.  Irving  has  never  revived  on  any  occasion  — 
thereby  showing  his  wisdom  —  but  the  little  essay 
is  full  of  judicious  and  appreciative  criticism. 

At  the  end  of  May  PJiilip  was  taken  off  and 
Charles  I.  taken  up  again  for  three  weeks.  Of 
this  revival  we  read  that  it  was  in  many  respects 
an  improvement  on  the  first  production,  the  minor 
parts  being  better  filled.  Mr.  Wedmore  writes  : 
"A  wonderful  subtlety  of  expression  and  gesture 
accompanies  the  recital  of  the  ballad  in  Charles  I.; 
he  repeats  it  to  his  children  who  like  the  story  of 
it,  and  shows  you  very  plainly  that  it  is  not  at  afl 
in  his  thoughts.  It  is  in  quieter  moments  like 
these  that  we  see  most  plainly  that  it  is  an  artist 
who  is  at  work ;  a  man  with  whom  voice  and  face 
and  gesture  are  but  instruments,  and  that  the 
mind  itself — the  subtle  intention — can  alone  give 
them  their  worth.  Throughout  this  play  Mr.  Ir- 
ving does  many  things  that  are  worth  remem- 
bering." 


CHARLES    I. —  REVIVED — I  874.  69 

He  certainly  attains  a  purityof  style  which  we  do 
not  remember  to  have  felt  so  strongly  in  any  other 
part  we  happen  to  have  seen  him  in.  He  infuses 
a  touch  of  the  "divine  right"  into  his  scorn  and 
anger,  a  calm  marital  dignity  into  his  parting  with 
the  Queen  which  are  very  delicate  touches  of  art ; 
the  romantic  side  of  the  drama  is  fully  felt,  but 
the  reserve,  etiquette  and  circumstance  is  duly 
indicated  too.  This  complex  suggestion  is  the 
great  merit  of  the  performance  ;  and  for  the  admi- 
rable intelligence  and  self-control  it  reveals  we  are 
disposed  to  rank  it  very  high  among  Mr.  Irving's 
efforts.  It  does  not  give  an  opening  for  that 
flame  of  passion — whether  of  love  or  fury — that 
he  can  flash  forth  at  need,  but  as  a  sympathetic 
presentment  of  a  man  who  is  also  a  King  it  seems 
to  us  admirably  conceived. 

The  last  week  of  the  Lyceum  spring  season 
was  chiefly  devoted  to  benefits.  For  his  man- 
ager's benefit  Mr.  Irving  played  Mathias,  and 
detached  portions  of  PJiilip  and  of  CJiarles  I.  at 
matinees,  with  Raising  the  Wind  in  the  evening. 
At  the  end  of  the  fashionable  season  at  the  Ly- 
ceum Mr.  Irving  and  others  of  the  company  gave 
a  series  of  performances  at  the  Standard  Theatre, 
a  house  at  the  east  end  of  London  and  so  com- 
pletely of  the  ken  of  the  West  End  that  an  actor 


70  HENRY    IRVING. 

may  "  star"  there  with  as  much  success  as  in  the 
provincial  towns.  He  then  went  to  Liverpool, 
Manchester,  Bristol,  etc.,  with  Miss  Isabel  Bateman, 
and  the  Lyceum  reopened  with  The  Bells  in  Sep- 
tember. 

Rarely  in  the  history  of  the  stage  have  expec- 
tation and  curiosity  been  so  much  excited  by  any 
promised  performance  as  they  were  by  the  an- 
nouncement that  Mr.  Irving  was  preparing  to  act 
Hamlet  at  the  Lyceum.  The  last  Hamlet  of  any 
mark  on  the  English  stage  had  been  Charles 
Fechter ;  the  last  of  any  fame  Charles  Kean. 
But  Kean  had  retired  from  the  London  stage  in 
1859  (he  died,  1868)  while  Irving  was  still  work- 
ing hard  in  the  provinces,  and  it  is  possible  that 
the  young  actor  had  never  seen  Kean  whose 
Hamlet  was  characterized  by  the  dry  rasping 
utterance  which  must  have  thrown  cold  water  on 
almost  any  passion  and  chilled  the  eagerest  sym- 
pathy, in  spite  of  the  most  intelligent  reading  and 
painstaking  presentment.  (Louis  XI.  was  Charles 
Kean's  greatest  achievement).  Mr.  Irving  tells  us 
himself  that  "he  never  saw  Macready  in  the  part." 
i^Nineteerith  Century,  February  1876).  Fechter's 
Hamlet  had  found  warm  admirers ;  it  was  clever 
and  singular,  but  it  is  no  disrespect  to  that  de- 
lightful actor  of  sentimental  and  romantic  parts  to 


HAMLET  —  I  874-7  5-  71 

say  that  its  abstractions  were  outside  if  not  beyond 
his  powers.  Two  American  actors  had  also 
played  Hamlet  in  England,  Mr.  Wallack  and  Mr. 
G.  V.  Brooke,  but  under  unfavorable  circum- 
stances— indifferently  supported  perhaps — at  any 
rate  they  achieved  no  particular  success. 

The  play,  or  to  be  accurate,  the  part,  of 
Hamlet  must  have  some  subtle  affinities  with  the 
English  character.  The  morbid  conscientious- 
ness, the  possession  by  an  idea,  a  mania  for 
redressing  a  definite  wrong  are,  of  course,  charac- 
teristic of  a  lofty  and  acutely  sensitive  nature,  of 
whatever  race ;  but  there  is  something  essentially 
Teutonic  in  the  questioning  spirit  which  compli- 
cates every  moral  decision  in  Hamlet's  mind,  and 
which  "reasons  of  the  judgment  to  come"  in  the 
very  crisis  of  volition  when  "to  be  or  not  to  be" 
must  seal  the  fate  of  souls  as  well  as  bodies.  The 
English  public  is  never  tired  of  seeing  Hamlet, 
and  with  all  its  reverence  for  Shakespeare  listens 
with  more  than  patience  to  every  new  reading 
which  may  suggest  some  possible  new  answer  to 
the  problems  of  life  and  mind  which  Hamlet,  like 
the  rest  of  us,  could  only  see  and  never  solve. 
The  part  of  Hamlet  is  an  abstract  of  one  side  of 
human  nature  for  all  ages,  and  the  London  public 
wanted — perhaps  with  but  a  vague  consciousness 


72  HENRY   IRVING. 

of  what  it  wanted — such   a  Man  of  his  Time  as 
Irving  undoubtedly  is,  to  assimilate  its  essence  and 
then    reproduce    it    as    the    interpretation   of  the 
spirit  of  their  own  age.     "Mr.  Irving's  admirers 
felt  that  his  Hamlet  would  be  the  true  one,"  says 
the  Daily   Telegraph;  and  they  were  so  far  right 
that  for  them,  for  us,   it  is.      "Some,   who  have 
seen  other  Hamlets   are   aghast:    'Mr.   Irving  is 
missing  his  points  and    neglecting   his  opportu- 
nities :   Betterton's  face  turned  white  when  he  saw 
the  ghost,  Garrick  thrilled  the  house  as  he  fol- 
lowed him ' — but  by  the  end  of  the  first  act  all 
are  spellbound.     The  second  act  finishes  with  the 
same  result.     Mr.  Irving's  intention  is  not  to  make 
to  points  but  to   give  a   consistent  reading  of  a 
Hamlet  who   thinks  jilojjd.     The  Hamlet  he  pre- 
sents to  us  may  be   rejected  by  some    *    *    but 
many  will  not  only  accept  his  interpretation,  but  will 
feel  that  they  are  brought  in  close  connection  with 
the  Hamlet  Shakespeare  knew."   "The  originality 
of  the  conception  is  at  first  startling,  especially  to 
that  army  of  old  play-goers  whose  ideas  have  been 
marshalled  into  order  and  arranged  by  the  actors 
of  their  youth."  (Times). 

The  play-goers  of  the  younger  generation 
could  not  fail  by  this  time  to  discern  in  Irving  an 
actor,  and  a  thinker,  who  might,  if  ever  man  could, 


HAMLET— I  874-75-  71 

make  those  "  sweet  bells"  ring  in  harmony,  though 
never  in  unison,  which  to  Ophelia's  narrower  in- 
telligence only  "jangled  out  of  tune."  This,  in 
fact,  was  what  Henry  Irving  did  —  other  actors 
have  played  Hamlet  before  him  and  others  will 
play  it  again  ;  but  in  each  age,  as  the  times 
change,  the  actor  who  understands,  as  Irving  has 
done,  the  pure  and  adaptable  human  essence  of 
Hamlet's  nature  will  not  merely  succeed  but  will 
be  one  of  the  high-priest's  of  his  *ige,  speaking 
both  for  and  to  the  people.  This  sounds  rhapsodi- 
cal and  it  is  meant  as  the  highest  praise  ;  at  the 
same  time  it  does  not  exclude  criticism  as  to  the 
execution  of  what  is  so  nobly  and  broadly  con- 
ceived. The  details  of  Mr.  Irving's  acting  are  al- 
ways strangely  and  subtly  aggravating.  He 
reminds  us,  even  in  Hamlet,  of  only  too  many 
modern  artists  who,  painters  though  they  be,  can- 
not paint.  The  eccentricities  of  his  pronuncia- 
tioji-put  his  blank  verse  out  of  tune,  and  pauses 
where  they  cannot  commend  themselves  to  our 
common  sense  dislocate  his  meaning  into  some- 
thing only  too  like  nonsense. 

The Athenaenm,\n  speakingofthis  performance, 
puts  forward  the  rather  paradoxical  opinion  that  in 
spite  of  the  length  of  the  part,  "  the  longest  in  the 
acted  drama,"  there  is  not  one  "  more  difficult  and 


74  -  HENRY    IRVING. 

thankless,"  and  "that  so  long  as  every  scholar 
throughout  civilization  retains  an  individual  con- 
ception of  Hamlet,  the  actor  who  undertakes  to 
present  it  will  always  encounter  exceptional  risks." 
"  Of  all  Shakespeare's  great  plays  Hamlet  belongs 
most  distinctly  to  the  closet."  But  we  venture  to 
think  that  this  is  not  only  paradoxical  but  the  con- 
verse of  the  truth.  It  is  because  it  is  the  most 
read  —  as  it  very  probably  is  —  that  the  public  are 
always  ready  to  listen  to  a  new  reading ;  and  it  is 
not  too  much  to  say  that  it  is  actually  because  the 
other  great  plays  are  less  read  in  private,  because 
the  individual  play-goer  has  not  so  completely 
envisage  \\\Q  other  great  parts,  that  the  curiosity 
and  interest  they  excite  is  less  eager.  The 
Athenaeum  critic  however  expresses  himself  satis- 
fied with  Mr.  Irving's  reading.  "  Itjs  interesting 
and  intellectual  in  an  eminent  degree.  The  char- 
acter has  been  studied  with  care  and  intelligence 
and  the  conception  throughout  is  elevated  and 
sustained.  As  no  event  has  created  more  profound 
interest,  no  audience  at  any  previous  representa- 
tion in  recent  times  has  been  more  capable  and 
more  critical.  Slowly  and  reluctantly  it  came  un- 
der the  spell  of  the  conception,  and  at  the  close 
.of  the  third  act  was  riveted  in  a  way  such  as  we 
read    of    in    records    of    past    performances,    but 


HAMLET — 1874-75.  75 

scarcely — so  far  as  English  acting  is  concerned  — 
can  recall.  The  performance  is  noteworthy  as 
marking  a  stage  in  the  history  of  theatrical  art, 
since  it  shows  the  final  abandonment^of  old  tradi- 
tions of  acting,  and  of  conventions  of  declama- 
tion^ The  performance  is  revolutionary,  —  but 
he  makes  no  change  for  the  sake  of  change :  his 
new  business  is  occasionally  unimportant ;  it  is 
generally,  however,  significant,  even  when  we 
think  it  is  wrong." 

Mr.  Frederick  Wedmore  deals  with  the  per- 
formance with  his  usual — nay  unfailing,  perception 
and  appreciation  of  its  beauties  and  its  faults  ;  but 
his  essays  are  too  long  to  reproduce  at  full  length 
and  too  complete  to  cut  with  any  justice.  The 
reader  who  wants  a  critic's  sympathy  in  judging 
of  this  great  achievement  will  find  them  in  the 
Academy,  literary  journal.  (London,  November  7 
and  14,  and  December  12,  1874).  "The  whole 
performance,"  he  ends,  "  may  be  summarized  by 
saying  that  Mr.  Irving's  interpretation,  notwith- 
standing a  few  errors,  is  vigorous,  graceful,  thought- 
ful, and  sagacious  beyond  contemporary  experi- 
ence. It  is  a  picture  touched  not  rarely  by 
the  light  of  undeniable  genius." 

The  Spectator  too  praised  it  with  much  discre- 
tion.    "  Mr.  Irving  can  still  be  stilted  and  not  un- 


^6  HENRY    IRVING. 

frequently  hard ;  but  the  gain  of  these  few  years 
(from  1 87 1  to  1874)  has  been  so  marvellous  that 
we  do  not  know  what  more  he  may  not  gain ;  he 
may  easily  reach  — for  he  is  yet  young,  even  the 
highest  point  attainable  in  his  art.  In  a  few  of  the 
most  difficult  scenes  his  Hamlet  is  all  but  perfect. 
He  has  the  power  in  him  to  make  it  so  in  all." 

The  Sat2irday  Review  (December  19,  1874,) 
compared  Messrs.  Creswick  and  Irving  in  Hamlet, 
"  not  to  Mr.  Creswick's  disadvantage.  So  much 
nonsense,  to  speak  plainly,  has  been  written  about 
Mr.  Irving  that  people  will  hear  with  surprise  that 
there  is  another  actor,  who,  in  his  great  part,  is 
not  so  very  far  behind  him."  It  admits,  however, 
what  is  unfortunately  only  too  true,  that  Mr.  Cres- 
wick looked  old  for  the  part,  and  added  that  "  his 
Hamlet  was  more  stagey  while  Mr.  Irving  shows 
more  independent  study."  "It  is  satisfactory," 
the  same  paper  remarks,  "  to  observe  the  care  and 
completeness  with  which  the  performance  has  been 
undertaken.  We  do  not  in  the  least  undervalue 
the  conscientious  study  which  Mr.  Irving  has 
given  to  this  part ;  but  we  may  venture  to  remark 
that  it  is  not  exactly  what  Shakespeare  thought 
most  desirable  in  an  actor.  Emotional  talent  is  a 
more  precious  gift  than  any  result  that  can  be 
worked  out  by  study.     We  by  no  means  say  that 


■-'% 


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I 


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fef>% 


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'a-.'A 


MISS    EI.I.KN    TKRRY    AS    "OPHELIA. 


MISS   terry's    OPHELIA.  TJ 

Mr.  Irving  does  not  possess  this  faculty  of  feeling 
the  part  he  undertakes,  but  we  observe  that  his 
admirers  dwell  emphatically  on  other  faculties 
■which  do  not  alone  make  a  first-rate  actor.  Never- 
theless he  has  attained  a  considerable  success  and 
there  can  be  no  question  that  his  Hamlet  is  well 
worth  seeing." 

We  recommend  the  real  play-goer — the  play- 
goer whose  enjoyment  is  at  once  sympathetic  and 
critical  —  to  see  Hamlet  twice.  Once,  that  is  to 
say,  to  see  Hamlet,  and  once  to  see  Ophelia.  We, 
who  have  seen  many  Hamlets  have  suffered  under 
many  Ophelias — the  stagey  Ophelia,  the  whining 
Ophelia,  the  feebly  raving  Ophelia.  But  Miss 
Terry  is  the  Ophelia  beloved  of  Hamlet  the 
prince,  the  ideal  maiden  of  Hamlet  the  philoso- 
pher. It  is  a  consummate  piece  of  acting  in  more 
ways  than  one,  and  not  least  in  this :  that  she 
makes  Ophelia  of  due  importance  and  the  heroine 
of  the  love  interest — which  we  never  saw  any 
other  Ophelia  do  —  and  yet  pitches  her  individual- 
ity in  a  gentle  key  which  gives  consistency  to  the 
character  as  a  whole,  and  duly  subordinates  it  to 
the  main  current  of  the  tragedy.  Besides  this  she 
has  beauty  and  grace ;  though,  to  tell  the  truth, 
her  appearance  more  exactly  befits  Portia  and 
Desdemona. 


78  HENRY    IRVING. 

At  the  close  of  this  season  on  the  3d  of  July, 
Mr.  Irving  gave  a  reading  at  the  Crystal  Palace, 
selecting  scenes  from  Hamlet  and  OtJiello  as  well 
as  some  short  pieces ;  he  had  previously  given  a 
similar  entertainment  in  aid  of  a  London  hospital, 
with  a  rather  more  varied  selection,  and  an  audi- 
ence, of  the  class  usually  too  genteel  to  applaud, 
were  fairly  roused  to  enthusiasm  and  laughter. 

On  March  22d,  1875,  Mr.  Bateman  died  sud- 
denly ;  this  was  regarded  as  an  almost  irreparable 
loss  by  all  play-goers  who  understood  the  re- 
sponsibilities and  difficulties  of  a  manager's  func- 
tions. "  Who  is  to  succeed  him  ?"  asked  The 
Saturday  Review  suddenly  awakened  to  a  sense 
of  his  managerial  powers.  "  The  prosperity  and 
popularity  of  Mr.  Bateman  and  his  family  in  Eng- 
land, are  a  gratifying  set-off  to  the  many  successes 
of  English  actors  in  America."  We  confess  that 
as  we  remember  Booth,  Charlotte  Cushman,  and 
Joseph  Jefferson,  not  to  mention  Herman  Vezin, 
who  has  made  England  his  home,  we  should  have 
thought  the  score  fairly  balanced  already.  His 
widow  now  took  up  the  reins  of  government ; 
Mr.  Irving  was  faithful  to  the  theatre  where  he 
had  won  his  greatest  triumphs,  and  Miss  Kate 
Bateman  (Mrs.  Crowe)  came  to  reinforce  the  com- 
pany. 


MACBETH — 1875.  79 

It  was  with  her,  at  the  end  of  September  that  Mr. 
Irving  first  played  Macbeth.  Very  few  play-goers 
looked  forward  at  all  hopefully  to  his  presentment 
of  the  ambitious  Thane  and,  on  the  whole,  their 
doubts  and  fears  were  fully  justified.  Some  of  his 
critics,  it  is  true,  maintained  that  the  actual  per- 
formance of  certain  passages  was  admirable : 
"  The  final  combat  and  death  struggle  have  pro- 
bably never  been  equalled  for  picturesque  force 
and  intensity."  (Daily  News).  However,  opin- 
ions differed  as  to  his  success.  The  Athenaeum 
pronounced  that  though  there  was  "  intention  in 
Mr.  Irving's  conception  it  was  wrong"  and  Mr. 
Sheridan  Knowles,  in  a  careful  and  well-considered 
study  of  Irving's  Macbeth,  comes  to  very  much 
the  same  conclusion  and  the  analysis  he  gives  of 
the  play  fully  warrants  him  in  his  verdict. 

"That  Mr.  Irving's  representation  of  the  am- 
bitious Thane  has  many  strong  points  we  have  al- 
ready acknowledged  ;  and  if  we  cannot  call  them 
redeeming  points,  it  is  because  he  utterly  fails  to 
realize  that  marvellous  balance  of  character  and 
situation  which  Shakespeare  has  so  finely  elabo- 
rated."* 

The  tragedy  was  carefully  prepared  and  mag- 

*  Sheridan  Knowles'  conception  and  Mr.  Irving's  performance  of 
Macbeth.     London,  Effingham  Wilson,  1876. 


8o  HENRY    IRVING. 

nificently  put  upon  the  stage.  "  We  do  not 
suppose  the  oldest  play-goer  in  the  house  can  re- 
member the  play  of  Macbeth  to  have  begun  more 
admiirably.  The  weird  effects,  almost  too  daring 
for  representation,  were  on  this  occasion  crowned 
with  signal  success.  The  marvellous  mystery — 
which  has  been  known  to  provoke  laughter — here 
inspired  awe.  The  three  sisters  are  indeed  black 
and  midnight  hags,  and  as  they  patter  round  their 
cauldron,  revealed  by  an  occasional  lightning  flash, 
the  very  gloom  and  horror  which  Shakespeare 
wished  to  throw  over  his  tragedy  are  felt  by  the 
audience.  *  *  But  before  the  second  scene  is  over 
they  cannot  quite  grasp  Mr.  Irving's  idea  of  Mac- 
beth. *  *  In  facial  expression  he  is  even  better 
than  ever ;  once  more  his  face  is  an  index  to  his 
mind,  his  attitudes  eloquent  with  expression  and 
meaning.  *  *  Why  then  should  there  be  any 
hesitation  in  accepting  Mr.  Irving's  Macbeth,  and 
why  does  a  feeling  of  disappointment  arise  ?  The 
fact  is  that  we  are  conscious  of  what  the  actor 
means,  and  are  confident  of  the  care  devoted  to 
the  study,  but  we  see  with  alarm  that  he  is  un- 
able thoroughly  to  carry  out  his  ideas.  To  make 
matters  worse  his  manner  is  occasionally  so 
dreamy  and  his  voice  so  lowered  that  the  text  can- 
not be  heard."     The   Daily  Telegraph   was   very 


OTHELLO  —  1 876.  8 1 

severe  on  the  whole  performance.  "  The  thought 
and  culture  devoted  to  the  part  of  Macbeth" — it 
ended  — "  by  the  young  student  actor  (Mr.  Irving 
was  then  seven  and  thirty,  but  he  had  been  only 
nine  years  on  the  London  stage)  deserved  no  doubt 
a  happier  fate ;  but  no  great  actor  has  ever  suc- 
ceeded well  in  all  the  Shakespearian  characters  he 
has  assumed.  Many  indeed,  like  Mr.  Irving  have 
not  been  gifted  with  the  physical  strength  or  ro- 
bust vigor  necessary  for  the  trying  demands  of  a 
tragedy  like  Macbeth." 

Hamlet  was  revived  for  a  short  time  during 
the  winter  and  meanwhile  Mr.  Irving  was  nursing 
a  still  loftier  ambition. 

Though  Macbeth  was  no  doubt  to  a  certain 
extent  a  failure  in  art,  and  a  success  only  in  so 
far  as  curiosity  filled  the  house,  it  held  the  stage 
nearly  six  months,  and  then  Mr.  Irving  nothing 
daunted  flew  at  the  highest  mark  that  an  English, 
or  any  other,  actor  can  ever  hope  to  reach.  In 
February,  1876,  he  attempted  to  play  Othello. 
It  is  hardly  disrespectful  to  say  so  markedly  at- 
tempted;  Edmund  Kean  is  said  to  have  played 
Othello  before  the  time  of  most  living  play-goers, 
and  an  Italian  actor  performed  it  with  extraor- 
dinary power  and  success  not  long  since  in 
Italian.      At  the  same  time  it  remains  doubtful  to 

6 


82  HENRY    IRVING. 

this  day  whether  any  analysis  of  average  men,  or 
synthesis  arrived  at  even  by  the  most  perfervid 
spirit,  can  result  in  a  satisfactory  presentment  of 
the  Moor — it  is  perhaps  the  one  part  which  a 
'  noble  savage'  might  seize,  master,  and  then  hurl 
at  an  audience  with  a  success  never  to  be  achieved 
by  the  student.     But  we  most  of  us  feel,  with  the 
Preacher,  that  "  sl  living  dog  is  better  than  a  dead 
lion"  and  take  Edmund  Kean  on  trust  as  becomes 
us  when  our  elders  speak ;  and  it  is  quite  certain 
that  we  apply  to  a  foreigner  far  less  subtle  and 
searching  tests  of  quality  than  we  do  to  an  actor 
who  speaks  our  mother  tongue.      Grace,   force, 
dignity,  and  facial  expression   are  of  course  the 
language  of  aU  mankind;  but  delicate  beauties  are 
undoubtedly  lost    unless   we    have   a  very   good 
knowledge  of  the  actor's  tongue,  and  subtle  faults 
also  escape  our  notice.     Some  of  the  most  annoy- 
ino-  defects   in   Mr.    Irving's  elocution  would   no 
doubt    remain    concealed    if  we    heard    them    in 
Italian,  so  it  is  not  impossible  that  Signer  Salvini's 
talent,  great  as  it  is,  has  been  overrated  a  little. 
On  the  other  hand  it  is  impossible  to  be  satisfied 
with  Irving's  Othello.      "There  can  be  but  one 
true   Othello,"    said    the    Times   (February  17th, 
1876),  and  a  jerky,  fidgety,  undignified  Othello 
is  not  he.     Othello's  jealous  suspicion  is  a  slow, 


OTHELLO — 1876.  83 

boa-constrictor-like  demon,  irresistible,  unrelent- 
ing to  the  death.  The  passion  to  which  it  tor- 
tures him  is  the  death-struggle  of  its  victim.  The 
whole  scheme  of  the  story  is  not  so  much  the 
history  of  the  man  —  though  we  do  get  to  know 
a  good  deal  of  that  too  —  as  the  evolution  of  that 
passion.  The  synthesis  is  not  complex,  it  is 
compounded  of  few  elements  but  their  combina- 
tion results  in  flame,  explosion,  and  ruin.  Irving's 
conception  of  it  was  not  sufficiently  grandiose.  A 
defect  which  often  mars  his  art  in  this  was  curi- 
ously conspicuous ;  he  did  not  seem  to  have  con- 
sidered duly  the  bearings  of  his  own  individuality  as 
it  might  affect  the  other  persons  in  the  drama.  The 
first  thing  we  ask  of  the  actor  who  plays  Othello 
is  that  it  should  seem  possible  that  Desdemona 
should  love  him.  Of  whatever  shade  of  black- 
ness he  chooses  to  paint  himself  he  must  stand  a 
"lord  of  creation,"  self-respecting,  masterful,  and 
heroic ;  otherwise  the  weakest  Desdemona  could 
not  love  him  for  "  the  perils  he  had  known."  The 
least  sJiade  of  fractiousness  or  smallness  in  him 
mars  our  sympathy  with  her.  On  the  other  hand 
we  must  not  feel  as  if  mere  easy-going  good-nature 
had  made  him  fall  a  prey,  in  the  first  instance,  to 
lago's  villany ;  it  is  a  really  sublime  modesty  which 
is  the   soil   in  which   the   ancient  sows  the   seed. 


84  HENRY    IRVING. 

That  all  this  is  difficult  or  even  impossible  to  ren- 
der may  be  granted  ;  the  alternative  is  to  grasp 
only  the  broader  effects,  the  high  lights  of  the  pict- 
ure and  never  to  fritter  them  away  with  spots  and 
patches  of  color.  Irving's  lago — which  he  did 
not  play  till  some  years  later — was  not  altogether 
free  from  blemish  of  the  same  kind ;  the  whole 
mass  of  the  character,  however,  naturally  suffered 
less  and  his  conception  of  it  was  admirably  ren- 
dered and  perfectly  satisfactory  in  its  relations  to 
Othello.  Not  quite  so  as  regards  Desdemona,  with 
whom  we  can  hardly  believe  that  lago  would  have 
ventured  on  any  freedom  of  manner  though  he 
mocks  at  her  creed  of  virtue.  To  this  however  we 
shall  return  in  due  course. 

The  critique  on  Othello  in  The  Saturday  Re- 
view when  Irving  first  acted  it  was  unusually  full 
and  conscientious.  We  find  it  saying  in  fact  much 
what  we  have  said  here :  "  His  awkward  gait  and 
unpleasant  voice  detract  from  the  impressiveness  of 
his  first  entrance  and  when  the  Duke  says  :  '  I 
think  this  tale  would  win  my  daughter  too,'  we 
can  only  say  that  we  do  not  think  so.  *  *  He  has 
vicious  habits  which  have  been  confirmed  by  suc- 
cess and  popularity.  *  *  Mr.  Irving  has  always 
shown  an  intelligent  disregard  for  stage  traditions, 
but   unhappily    he    has    created    for  himself — or 


KING   PHILIP   OF    SPAIN — I  8/6.  85 

Others  have  created  for  him — a  standard  of  inten- 
sity which  is  ahnost  equally  pernicious." 

"  Mr.  Irving's  Othello  fails  to  impress  on  the 
audience  the  ingrained  nobility  of  the  character, 
and  it  almost  necessarily  follows  that  he  is  unsuc- 
cessful in  the  effort  to  carry  their  sympathies  with 
him.  Before  the  curtain  rose  upon  the  bed-cham- 
ber scene  it  had  been  felt  that  no  sufficient  foun- 
dation had  been  laid  for  sympathy  with  the  tragic 
fate  of  Desdemona  (played  then  by  Miss  Isabel 
Bateman)  or  the  overwhelming  misery  of  the 
Moor."   (F.  Wedmore  in  The  Academy). 

In  April,  1876,  the  Lyceum  became  the  scene 
of  an  interesting  experiment  on  the  part  of  Alfred 
Tennyson  (poet  Laureate  of  England),  who  for  the 
first  time  wrote  a  drama  for  stage  purposes  on  the 
history  of  "Queen  Mary."  Miss  Bateman  (Mrs. 
Crowe),  filled  the  title  part,  and  Mr.  Irving  played 
that  of  King  Philip  of  Spain.  The  play  was  only 
moderately  praised  but  Irving  undoubtedly  added 
a  leaf  to  his  crown.  It  was  a  highly-finished  piece 
of  "character  acting."  The  Spanish  King's  rigid 
haughtiness,  suspicious  alertness,  and  cold  concen- 
tration of  selfish  purpose  were  broadly  and  clearly 
rendered.  Here  again  he  "made  up"  from  well- 
known  pictures,  but  we  do  not  remember  to  have 
seen  a  photograph  of  him  in  the  part.      In  dealing 


86  '  HENRY    IRVING. 

with  the  play  of  Queen  Mary  of  course  the  task 
of  the  critics  was  to  dissect  the  piece  quite  as 
much  as  to  discuss  the  actors.  "  Mr.  Irving  and 
Miss  Bateman,"  says  The  Saturday  Review,  "did 
all  that  was  possible  for  the  principal  parts,  as  the 
manager  did  for  the  play  generally.  *  *  Respect 
is  due  even  to  misdirected  art.  The  manager  has 
undertaken  to  supply  the  want  of  a  national  thea- 
tre in  producing  this  play  as  a  sort  of  tribute  to 
literary  eminence,  and  failure  properly  evokes 
sympathy.  But  failure  beyond  a  doubt  there  was." 
Mr.  Irving  could  only  make  the  best  of  an  ungra- 
cious and  ungrateful  part,  and  a  plain,  sickly,  un- 
lovable woman  cannot  make  a  satisfactory  heroine 
though  sl'te  be  a  queen.  "  The  sorrows  of  wretched 
wives,  too,  pall  upon  the  public,  and  it  is  certainly 
not  a  frivolous  amusement  to  sit  through  such  a 
play  as  Queen  Mary." 

In  June,  1876,  Mr.  Irving  played  Joseph  Sur- 
face at  Drury  Lane  for  Mr.  Buckstone's  benefit 
and  within  a  fortnight  took  his  own,  after  playing 
Doricourt  for  that  of  Miss  Isabel  Bateman.  Lady 
Martin  (the  well-known  actress  Helen  Faucit)  who 
has  not  unfrequently  emerged  from  private  life  to 
perform  some  such  act  of  graciousness  or  charity, 
played  for  Mr.  Irving's  benefit,  "  and  both  he  and 
the   manager,"  says  The  Saturday  Review,   "  de- 


RICHARD    III. —  1877.  87 

serve  the  compliment."  The  part  she  selected  was 
that  of  the  blind  princess  in  King  Rene's  Daugh- 
ter, her  husband's  version  of  the  Swedish  play 
which  afterwards  furnished  Mr.  Wills  with  the 
motif  for  lo/anthe,  in  which  Miss  Ellen  Terry 
achieved  so  much  success.  Mr.  Irving  acted 
Count  Tristan. 

The  Lyceum  company,  with  Mr.  Irving  at 
their  head,  then  made  a  tour  through  the  provinces 
and  did  not  reappear  in  London  till  January, 
1877,  when  the  Lyceum  reopened  with  Richard 
III.  Mr.  Irving's  impersonation  of  the  crook- 
backed  Duke  of  Gloucester  is,  first  and  last,  one 
of  the  best  things  he  has  ever  done.  In  spite  of  a 
well-affected  deformity  he  wears  an  air  of  chival- 
rous grace  which  well  becomes  a  descendant  of 
the  Plantagenets.  "  Brilliant,  energetic,  impas- 
sioned," says  one  critic,  and  he  was  all  these  in  the 
scene  with  the  Lady  Anne  whom  he  wooes  with  a 
courtly  fascination  underneath  which  the  bully  is 
perceptibly  lurking. 

In  February  (3d),  1877,  a  very  thoughtful  ar- 
ticle in  The  Saturday  Review  did  full  justice  to  Mr. 
Irving's  claims  to  consideration  as  an  artist,  and 
spoke  with  sound  judgment,  whether  we  accept 
the  verdict  it  pronounced  or  no.  "  On  the  whole," 
the  writer  ends,  "  Mr.    Irving's  is  a  performance 


88  HENRY    IRVING. 

full  of  fine  and  fiery  qualities;"  and  five  weeks 
later  he  adds :  "  In  several  minor  matters  the  ac- 
tor has  improved.  The  patience  with  which  he 
keeps  the  meaning  of  the  character  fully  in  view 
of  the  audience,  by  means  chiefly  of  by-play, 
without  ever  thrusting  it  in  their  faces,  is  admira- 
ble *  *  but  there  is  a  singular  want  of  dignity 
and  kingliness  in  his  acting  with  the  messengers 
who  have  just  brought  him  in  bad  news." 

The  part  of  Richard  III.  is  a  strongly-marked 
example  of  Mr.  Irving's  best  and  worst  points  and 
most  provoking  peculiarities ;  but  as  it  will  not 
be  played  here  it  is  unnecessary  to  enlarge  upon  it 
at  any  length.  Though  there  is  much  to  criticise  at 
the  end  of  the  performance,  the  first  act,  as  has  al- 
ready been  said  is  full  of  beauties.  "  It  may 
reasonably  be  questioned,"  says  Mr.  Caine,  "  if 
the  contemporary  stage  have  ever  realized  any- 
thing so  absolutely  finished  in  its  tender,  pathetic, 
sportive,  and  earnest  aspects  as  the  interview  of 
Mr.  Irving's  Richard  with  Queen  Anne — ending 
with  its  startling  climax  of  withering  satire."* 

Mr  Caine's  pamphlet  though  very  ill-written 
is  full  of  thoughtful  observation.  He  is  "of  opin- 
ion that  Mr.  Irving's  delineations  of  the  characters 

*  Richard  III.  and  Macbeth  ;  the  spirit  of  romantic  play.     J.  H. 
Caine,  London,  Simpkin  &  Marshall,  1877. 


LESURQUES    AND     DUBOSC — I  877.  89 

of  Macbeth  and  Richard  III.,  although  histrioni- 
cally harmonious  in  the  highest  degree,  are  wide 
of  the  truth  in  some  leading  particulars  which  the 
exercise  of  a  certain  guiding  principle  might  have 
discovered." 

It  is  interesting  to  find  that  the  following  year 
Mr.  Irving,  at  a  meeting  to  which  he  was  invited, 
defended  the  views  on  which  he  had  acted  Mac- 
beth at  the  Lyceum. 

It  was  in  May,  1 877,  that  Mr.  Irving  came  out  in 
"The  Lyons  Mail,"  playing  the  two  parts  of  Lesur- 
ques  and  Dubosc.  This  has  always  been  regarded 
rather  as  a  tour  de  force  than  as  a  piece  of  art 
and  no  doubt  the  mere  trick,  as  a  trick,  is  a  clever 
one  and  cleverly  performed  ;  but  what  is  far  more 
remarkable  is  the  solidity  of  the  work  Mr.  Irving 
has  bestowed  on  what  is,  after  all,  a  decidedly 
sensational  drama,  with  striking  contrasts  and 
strong  situations  but  with  little  subtlety  of  char- 
acter. Dubosc  is  a  drunken  ruffian,  Lesurques 
the  mildest  of  citizens ;  the  real  art  of  the  actor 
consists  more  perhaps  in  keeping  such  a  likeness 
as  may  excuse  the  mistake  as  to  their  identity, 
than  in  marking  so  trenchant  a  difference.  But 
the  drama  is  exciting  and  worth  seeing  if  only 
to  understand  how  wide  Mr.  Irving's  intelligence 
is.      Dubosc  is,  so   far   as  we   recollect   the  only 


90  HENRY    IRVING. 

coarse  and  brutal  part  that  Mr.  Irving  ever  as- 
sumes. 

"  To  exhibit  all  the  difference  between  the  two 
characters,  and  to  exhibit  it  as  if  not  merely  a 
material  but  a  psychological  change  was  effected, 
is  an  object  well  worthy  of  a  performer  of  Mr.  Ir- 
ving's  powers.  Nor  does  his  performance  fall  far 
short  of  ideal  excellence.  The  situation  where 
Lesurque /^r^,  convinced  of  his  son's  guilt,  urges 
him  rather  to  kill  himself  than  mount  the  scaf- 
fold— when  the  son  is  at  one  moment  on  the  point 
of  yielding  but  a  nobler  impulse  induces  him  to 
cast  the  pistol  from  him  —  is  exceedingly  dra- 
matic—  Mr.  Irving's  fine  shades  of  expression  and 
terrible  earnestness  being  aided  in  their  effect  by 
contrast  with  the  grave  inflexibility  and  sombre 
dignity  of  Mr.  Meade  as  the  father.  The  play 
affords  a  field  for  acting  of  the  highest  quality." 
(Academy). 

The  Saturday  Review,  however,  did  not  speak 
very  highly  of  the  performance  when  it  was  first 
put  on  the  stage.  "  There  is  nothing  in  the  play 
that  calls  for  praise  of  any  kind  except  Mr.  Ir- 
ving's well-meaning,  but  not  altogether  happy, 
attempt  to  apply  his  great  and  peculiar  talent  to 
a  performance  which  is  hardly  worth  so  much 
trouble."     This  was  in  June,  1877;  but  it  is  to 


LOUIS    XL — 1878.  91 

be  presumed  that  the  result  to  Mr.  Irving  was 
worth  the  trouble,  since  he  has  lately  revived  the 
play  and  elaborated  his  own  parts  with  so  much 
care  that  the  performance  is  now  no  longer  a  tour 
de  force  but  a  phenomenon  of  character  acting. 
In  its  first  state  (as  we  say  of  other  works  of  art) 
it  must  have  been  distinctly  overdone  ;  it  is  evi- 
dent however  that  the  actor  has  liked  playing 
it  —  perhaps  the  breadth  of  effect  is  a  relief  after 
the  subtleties  of  Hamlet  and  Benedick — and  he 
has  added  finish  without  losing  vigor  and  con- 
trast. 

Louis  XI.  King  of  France  was  the  next  new 
part  that  Irving  studied  ;  he  played  it  for  the  first 
time  on  March  9th,  1878.  Charles  Kean's  success 
in  this  part  was  well  remembered  by  most  Jiabitiies 
of  the  London  theatres.  It  had  been  the  best  of 
his  parts,  and  it  is  now  one  of  the  best  of  Mr. 
Irving's.  An  English  provincial  paper  published 
a  discriminating  comparison  of  the  chief  points  of 
resemblance  and  contrast  in  the  performances  of 
Louis  XI.  by  Charles  Kean  and  Henry  Irving 
(quoted  at  full  length  in  Pascoe  s  Dramatic  List, 
for  1880).  The  highly-intelligent  writer  prefers 
Irving,  excepting  in  one  passage  —  where  the 
King  begs  to  Nemours  for  his  life.  "  It  must  be 
recorded"   he   says   "  that   the   last  act   is  vastly 


92  HENRY    IRVING. 

superior  to  anything  that  it  entered  into  the  mind 
of  Charles  Kean  to  effect." 

The  new  play  of  Louis  XL  was  written  in 
blank  verse  by  Mr.  Dion  Boucicault,  for  Mr.  Irving. 
"The  character  of  the  old  King  is  eminently  fitted 
to  his  genius.  In  the  play  it  is,  to  be  sure,  but  a 
flimsy  piece  of  workmanship,  and  it  is  the  actor's 
faculty  of  appealing  to  the  imagination  through  his 
own  imaginative  power  which  renders  this  achieve- 
ment distinctly  greater  than  the  late  Mr.  Charles 
Kean's  famous  performance  *  *  he  did  not  exer- 
cise the  peculiar  fascination  which  is  felt  by  Mr. 
Irving's  audiences.  In  expressive  play  of  feature 
he  is  unrivalled.  In  Mr.  Kean's  hands  the  part 
was  essentially  melodramatic ;  as  played  by  Mr. 
Irving  it  becomes  invested  with  a  terrible  sort  of 
idealit}^  and  assumes  far  grander  proportions  than 
anything  we  are  accustomed  to  associate  with  the 
name  of  melodrama." 

At  the  same  time,  to  gain  any  adequate  idea 
of  what  Irving  can  do,  this  is  by  no  means  the 
best  play  to  see  him  in.  The  '  make-up'  is  as 
good  as  possible,  and  the  restless,  mean  gestures, 
the  narrow  movement  and  pinched  vitality  of  a 
suspicious  and  miserly  hypocrite  are  admirably 
rendered.  But  he  has  no  opening  for  rising  to  a 
broader  or  more  impassioned  vein;  the  climax  of 


VANDERDECKEN —  I  878.  93 

emotion  is  superstitious  terror,  his  utmost  expres- 
sion of  gladness  is  hardly  more  than  a  senile 
chuckle  —  of  anger,  a  display  of  impotent  fury. 
Those  who  can  see  Mr.  Irving  in  more  than  one 
part  will  do  well  to  see  Louis  XI.  ;  those  who  can 
see  him  but  once  should  select  Hamlet  if  their 
tastes  are  classical,  The  Bells  or  TJie  Lyons  Mail  if 
they  crave  after  sensation.  Another,  quite  dif- 
ferent line  of  character  was  taken  up  by  Mr.  Irving 
in  the  summer  of  the  same  year,  1878:  Vander- 
decken  in  a  new  version  of  the  well-known  story 
of  the  Flying  Dutchman.  Of  this  again,  the 
present  writer  cannot  speak  from  personal  expe- 
rience. Irving  must  have  looked  uncommonly 
well  in  the  part ;  a  photograph  done  of  him  by 
Messrs.  Vander  Weyde  of  London  is  certainly  the 
most  flattering  portrait  that  we  have  seen.  The 
piece  was  not  a  success  however ;  perhaps  it  was 
not  intrinsically  strong  enough  ;  and  this  seems 
probable  when  we  reflect  how  monotonous  the 
interest  is  and  how  simple  a  plot  has  been  ex- 
tended to  four  acts.  In  spite  of  capital  scenery 
and  careful  mounting  Vanderdecken  was  a  failure. 
The  play  was  feebly  constructed  and  the  promi- 
nence given  to  the  spectral  Dutchman  was  unduly 
great.  What  little  charm  the  part  derived  from 
Mr.    Irving's  acting  was   due   to   his   picturesque 


94  HENRY    IRVING. 

appearance,  and  to  a  certain  air  of  "  majesty  and 
command"  in  which  he  is  able  to  wrap  himself 
even  in  the  most  gloomy  scenes  and  situations. 
The  melodrama  had  a  short  life  —  impossible  to 
call  it  a  merry  one  —  and  was  soon  taken  off  and 
replaced  by  the  adaptation  from  Pickwick  called 
"Jingle."  By  this  time  however  the  London 
public  had  learnt  that  their  favorite  actor  could 
do  something  more  and  better  than  amuse  them. 
The  resume  of  the  part  printed  on  the  play- 
bills shows,  however,  that  even  in  so  light  a  part 
Irving  took  matters  seriously  and  studied  the 
frothy  fidgety  Jingle  as  a  character  —  as  a  man  — 
of  far  more  substance  than  the  original  author, 
Charles  Dickens,  had  endowed  him  with. 

ALFRED  JINGLE,  ESQ. 


JINGLE    THE    STROLLER. 
JINGLE    THE    LOVER. 
JINGLE    THE    FINANCIER 


JINGLE    THE   DANDY. 
JINGLE    THE    SWINDLER. 
JINGLE    THE    PENITENT. 


"The  impersonation,  however,"  says  Mr. 
Pascoe,  "was  not  of  a  kind  to  merit  critical  atten- 
tion, and  was  possibly  undertaken  as  a  relief  to 
Mr.  Irving's  more  arduous  duties." 


MANAGER   OF    THE    LYCEUM — I  878.         95 


CHAPTER  III. 

irvtng's  career  as  a  manager. 

From  the  death  of  her  husband  in  1875  till 
the  summer  of  1878,  Mrs.  "Bateman  continued  to 
be  the  responsible  manager  of  the  Lyceum  Theatre, 
but  the  pla}'s  performed  were  put  upon  the  stage 
under  Mr.  Irving's  immediate  direction  and  super- 
intendence and  no  doubt  the  grave  weight  of  re- 
sponsibility to  others,  while  it  cannot  be  said  to 
have  fettered  his  enterprise  must  have  been  the 
source  of  considerable  anxiety,  though,  at  the 
same  time,  of  much  valuable  experience.  When, 
in  September,  1878,  Mrs.  Bateman  relinquished 
the  management  she  was  able,  in  her  farewell  ad- 
dress, to  enumerate  a  goodly  list  of  plays  pro- 
duced b)'  her  husband  and  herself  during  their 
seven  years  reign,  a  catalogue  creditable  alike  to 
their  own  taste  and  their  confidence  in  that  of  the 
public.  In  recording  Mrs.  Bateman's  death  in 
January,  1881,  the  77/r«/;r  adds  a  feeling  tribute 
to  her  memory :  "  If  ever  a  woman  loved  the  art 
and  worked  for  it  with  a  man's  energy  and  a  high 


96  HENRY    IRVING. 

purpose  it  was  Mrs.  Bateman.  The  good  work 
she  began  at  the  Lyceum  she  intended  to  finish  at 
Sadler's  Wells,  and  just  as  she  was  beginning  to 
see  the  promised  fruit  of  all  her  industry  she  was 
cut  off,  to  the  unspeakable  sorrow  of  her  family  *  * 
Mrs.  Bateman  and  her  husband  rest  with  us  in 
old  England,  far  away  from  the  '  Maryland,  my 
Maryland  !'  to  which  their  hearts  often  turned  in 
their  exile."  **"  They  led  the  van,"  says  the 
same  periodical  in  1878,  "in  revolutionizing  the 
attitude  of  the  thoughtful  public  towards  the 
stage.  *  *  Under  ordinary  circumstances  it  would 
have  been  a  matter  for  profound  regret  that  the 
management  during  whose  time  so  much  valuable 
work  has  been  achieved  should  be  in  any  way 
changed  *  *  but  no  evil  is  likely  to  come  of  the 
transfer  of  the  reins  of  management  from  the 
hands  of  Mrs.  Bateman  to  those  of  Mr.  Irving.  Mr. 
Irving  enters  upon  his  task  with  the  most  am- 
bitious motives,  and  with  a  past  career  and  a  pres- 
ent position  which  give  the  strongest  indication 
of  his  power  to  accomplish  his  elevated  purpose. 
The  engagement  of  Miss  Ellen  Terry,  who  fairly 
heads  the  list  of  our  emotional  actresses,  may 
legitimately  be  held  to  mean  a  great  deal.  Any 
work  upon  which  artists  of  the  calibre  of  Mr.  Ir- 
ving and  Miss    Terry   simultaneously    engage    is 


THE   LYCEUM — I  878.  97 

morally  sure  to  be  worthy  of  the  utmost  attention. 
If  in  other  particulars  the  new  Lyceum  company 
can  be  strengthened  after  this  fashion,  we  are  as- 
suredly on  the  high-road  to  the  foundation  of  a 
school  of  dramatic  art  that  will  afford  us  both 
pleasure  and  pride." 

It  was  on  the  30th  of  December,  1878,  that 
Mr.  Irving  first  stood  before  the  London  public  on 
the  Lyceum  stage,  "  monarch  of  all  he  surveyed." 
His  play-bill  which  announced  Hamlet,  proclaimed 
him  '•  sole  lessee  and  manager,"  and  when  he  ap- 
peared he  was  received  with  unbounded  enthu- 
siasm. The  hopes  of  the  public  ran  high  for  the 
future  of  the  drama  under  his  control.  In  the 
first  place  he  had  strengthened  the  cast  in  many 
ways,  and  conspicuously  by  securing  the  services 
of  Miss  Ellen  Terry  who  has  ever  since  been  his 
worthy  coadjutor  in  his  work  and  whose  gifts, 
it  may  be  safely  said,  have  enabled  him  to  put 
plays  on  the  stage  which  it  would  have  been  im- 
possible to  present  with  an  inferior  actress  to 
second  him.  It  is  largely  due  to  her  talent  in  the 
female  parts  of  Portia,  Beatrice,  and  Pauline,  that 
we  have  seen  Irving  as  Shylock,  Benedick,  and 
Claude  Melnotte.  Miss  Bateman  (Mrs.  Crowe) 
was  too  heavy  an  actress,  her  sister.  Miss  Isabel 
Bateman,  too   slight   and    ineffective   to    fill    such 

7 


98  HENRY    IRVING. 

parts ;  and  it  is  easy  to  imagine  that  it  was  witii 
all  the  elation  of  freedom  that  Mr.  Irving  met  his 
old  friends  and  supporters,  the  London  public.  He 
addressed  them  briefly  at  the  end  of  the  evening 
in  a  vein  of  very  justifiable  satisfaction.  "  To  pro- 
duce the  Hamlet  of  to-night,"  he  said,  "  I  have 
worked  all  my  life,  and  I  rejoice  to  think  that  my 
work  has  not  been  in  vain."  In  truth  he  had  tri- 
umphed that  evening,  for  such  an  Ophelia  had 
certainly  not  acted  with  such  a  Hamlet  within  the 
memory  of  man.  "  The  support  she  afforded  Mr. 
Irving  was  of  the  highest  value."  Of  the  younger 
actors  who  at  that  time  found  parts  round  Irving's 
Hamlet  several  have  since  risen  to  higher  distinc- 
tion. Mr.  Kyrle  Bellew,  who  played  Osric,  is  a 
handsome  and  favorite  jcime  premier,  and  Mr. 
Pinero,  who  had  previously  acted  with  Mr.  Irving 
in  London  and  the  provinces,  has  since  distin- 
guished himself  not  only  as  an  actor  but  as  an 
author. 

During  that  season  Mr.  Irving  revived  all  his 
most  successful  pieces  and  the  new  blood  he 
had  brought  into  the  casts  added  greatly  to  his 
succ'ess  as  a  manager. 

On  the  17th  of  April,  1879,  Mr.  Irving  ap- 
peared as  Claude  Melnotte  in  TJie  Lady  of  Lyons, 
with  Miss  Ellen  Terry  as  Pauline.      Claude  Mel- 


CLAUDE    MELNOTTE — I  879.  .99 

notte  it  may  be  remembered  was  the  part  he  had 
chosen  to  play,  many  years  before,  for  his  first 
benefit  at  Edinburgh.  "  However,  this  perform- 
ance," said  the  Athenaeum,  "will  not  add  to  Mr. 
Irving's  reputation.  *  *  The  character,  from  the 
author's  standpoint  was  not  realized,  the  Claude 
Melnotte  being  a  virile  and  passionate  man  instead 
of  a  dreamy  and  sentimental  boy."  We  cannot 
agree  with  this  view  of  the  author's  intention,  be 
it  said.  What  we  look  on  at  in  this  play  is  the 
sudden  and  rapid  development  of  the  man  from 
the  boy ;  this  is  what  the  actor  has  to  show.  It  is 
a  character  which  demands  what  is  known  as 
creating  in  each  actor  who  takes  it  up ;  the  author 
has  not  given  substance  enough  to  stand  alone 
and  impress  itself  on  its  representative  and,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  tradition  of  Macready's  Claude  — 
if  such  a  tradition  exists  —  is  impotent  in  this 
generation.  Still,  with  all  its  faults,  which  are  so 
obvious  as  to  need  no  remark  here,  this  play 
perennially  appeals  to  the  romantic  side  of  the 
audience.  That  Pauline  should  be  handsome  and 
Claude  agile  seems  to  be  all  that  is  needed  to 
blind  them  to  the  meretricious  shallowness  of 
their  characters.  The  situations  are  sufificiently 
critical  to  be  extremely  interesting  and  the  senti- 
ments poetical  enough  to  sound  extremely  plausi- 

7* 


lOO  HENRY    IRVING. 

ble.  The  language  too  is  unquestionably  graceful, 
and  the  variety  of  demeanor  required  of  the 
chief  personages  veils  their  lack  of  backbone. 
"As  impersonated  by  Mr  Irving,"  said  the  Theatre 
"the  character  of  Claude  enlists  as  much  sympa- 
thy as  the  story  will  possibly  allow,"  and  alto- 
gether his  acting  of  the  part  sustained  his 
reputation  even  if  it  did  not  greatly  add  to  it. 

During  this,  his  first  season  as  a  manager,  Mr. 
Irving  returned  to  all  his  best  and  favorite  parts. 
In  this  way  he  prudently  availed  himself  of  all  the 
resources  at  his  command  and  at  the  same  time 
fairly  tested  his  own  hold  upon  the  public,  and 
his  powers  as  a  manager  without  straining  them 
too  severely.  He  played  in  Richelieu,  Louis  XL, 
The  Bells,  The  Lyons  Mail,  and  Charles  L.  with 
Miss  Terry  as  Henrietta  Maria.  Every  play  was 
mounted  with  lavish  care  and  rehearsed  to  the 
last  pitch  of  accuracy  and  finish. 

But  perhaps  the  most  remarkable  feat  per- 
formed by  Mr.  Irving  throughout  that  season  was 
the  assumption  of  a  series  of  characters  for  his 
own  benefit  on  July  25th  and  26th.  On  Friday 
evening,  July  25th,  he  played  the  first  act  of 
Richard  III.  with  Miss  Ellen  Terry  as  Lady  Anne; 
the  fourth  act  of  "Richelieu;"  the  fourth  act  of 
"  Charles  I.,"   Miss   Ellen   Terry   as   the   Queen, 


HENRY   IRVING  AND   ELLEN   TERRY    (HAMLET  — 1879). 


BENEFIT — 1879.  lOI 

Henrietta  Maria;  the  third  act  of  "Louis  XI.;" 
part  of  the  third  act  of  "Hamlet;"  and  the  farce 
of  "  Raising  the  Wind,"  in  which  he  played 
Jeremy  Diddler.  On  the  following  afternoon, 
Saturday  July  26th,  at  2  o'clock  he  repeated  this 
programme,  all  but  the  farce,  and  this  he  per- 
formed the  same  evening,  after  "  Eugene  Aram." 
On  the  evening  of  the  25th,  Mr.  Irving  explained 
in  a  very  graceful  manner  his  reasons  for  under- 
taking a  tour  de  force  \v\i\Qh.,  otherwise,  he  must 
have  acknowledged  to  be  a  fault  in  art  if  judged 
on  the  highest  grounds. 

"  For  nearly  eight  years  Ladies  and  Gentle- 
men "  he  said,  "we  have  met  in  this  theatre,  and 
the  eloquence  of  your  faces  and  of  your  applause 
has  thrilled  me  again  and  again.  *  *  *  *  To- 
night I  have  chosen  to  appear  before  you  not  in 
one  character,  but  in  six,  for  each  part  has  been 
associated  with  so  much  pleasure,  so  many  kindly 
wishes  from  you  and  such  sympathetic  recogni- 
tion, that  I  wished  to  renew  in  one  night  some  of 
the  memories  of  many." 

Mr.  Irving's  first-night  and  last-night  speeches 
have  now  become  an  institution  at  the  Lyceum ; 
indeed,  his  audience  refuse  to  leave  the  house  till 
they  have  seen  him,  and  he  is  always  hailed  with 
excited    applause    when    he    appears    before    the 


I02  HENRY   IRVING. 

curtain,  on  the  very  best  terms  with  himself  and 
his  pubhc.  On  this  occasion  their  satisfaction 
might  well  be  mutual,  since  Mr.  Irving  explained 
that  the  total  receipts  in  the  season  of  seven 
months  had  amounted  to  £^,6,000,  a  little  under 
1000  dollars  a  night. 

Various  rumors  were  afloat  that  autumn  to 
the  effect  that  a  New  York  manager  had  offered 
Mr.  Irving  high  terms  to  act  in  America.  It  was 
evidently  impossible  that  he  should  cross  the 
Atlantic  at  the  very  beginning  of  his  career  as  a 
manager,  but  he  wrote  to  the  TJicatre,  a  London 
Magazine,  expressing  a  hope  that  he  might  some 
day  do  so,  and  visit  his  American  friends. 

The  theatre  reopened  in  September  with  The 
Bells,  and  within  a  fortnight  Mr.  Irving  put  an 
old  play  on  the  stage  Vv^ith  his  usual  care  and 
attention  to  details ;  but  nothing  could  make  The 
Iron  Chest  thoroughly  interesting ;  the  only  per- 
son for  whom  it  is  possible  to  care  is  Sir  Edward 
Mortimer,  and  nevertheless  a  number  of  person- 
ages, of  the  old  melodramatic  smuggler  type,  are 
are  indispensable  to  the  plot,  and  are  intolerably 
dull.  The  youthful  secretary  —  played  by  pretty 
young  Norman  Forbes — engaged  our  sympathies, 
but  there  was  no  genuine  interest  in  the  story. 
Mr.  Irving  can  act  a  one-part  play  as  few  people 


IRON    CHEST  — 1879.  103 

can ;  but  that  is  a  different  thing  altogether  to 
acting  the  only  part  when  there  are  half  a  dozen 
other  personages  to  make  the  action  drag  till  the 
main  motive  is  almost  forgotten  between  the  im- 
portant scenes.  The  steward  however  was  well 
played  by  Mr.  J.  Carter.  The  Iron  Chest  was  how- 
ever perhaps  only  meant  as  a  stop-gap  at  the  be- 
ginning of  a  new  season,  while  the  finishing 
touches  were  being  put  to  a  gorgeously-mounted 
edition  —  if  we  may  so  call  it  —  of  The  Mercha^it 
of  Venice.  Miss  Ellen  Terry  did  not  play  in  The 
Iron  Chest,  the  small  part  of  the  heroine  being 
filled  by  her  pretty  little  sister  Miss  Florence 
Terry  ;  she  reappeared  for  a  short  time  as  Ophelia, 
and  then  on  the  ist  of  November  came  before  the 
Lyceum  public  in  the  part  of  Portia.  She  had 
already  played  it  at  the  Prince  of  Wales  with  a 
success  that  was  perhaps  enhanced  by  the  defects 
of  the  other  actors.  Mr.  Coghlan's  Shylock  had 
not  been  satisfactory  ;  it  is  a  part  demanding  char- 
acteristics and  natural  gifts  which  that  very  con- 
scientious artist  can  not  command,  and  Miss  Terry 
had  shone  as  the  only  star  of  any  magnitude  in 
the  whole  cast.  However,  she  lost  nothing  in 
being  seen  in  the  midst  of  a  much  stronger  com- 
pany at  the  Lyceum. 

The   revival  was  a  brilliant  success;   splendidly 


I04  HENRY    IRVING. 

mounted,  beautifully  dressed,  and  thoroughly  re- 
hearsed, there  was  nothing  omitted  that  the  most 
exacting  could  wish  for.  The  play  was  delightful 
to  see  and  to  remember.  As  in  a  later  Shakes- 
pearian revival  at  the  same  theatre — Much  Ado 
About  Nothing — an  air  of  ease,  wealth,  beauty, 
and  romance  was  shed  over  everything  which  was 
enchanting  at  the  time  and  left  a  feeling  in  the 
mind  as  of  a  brief  visit  to  some  happier  realm 
than  our  work-a-day  world  of  common-place. 

With  regard  to  the  acting  too,  the  critics  were 
more  truly  unanimous  perhaps  than  they  had 
been  about  any  other  part  played  by  Mr.  Irving. 
In  the  first  place  he  had  the  admirable  good  taste 
not  to  treat  the  trial  scene  and  discomfiture  of 
Shylock  as  the  end  and  aim  of  the  play  ;  he  per- 
ceived, and  he  was  right,  that  a  merely  negative 
satisfaction  in  the  punishment  of  malice  and  re- 
vengefulness  was  not  in  the  least  what  Shakespeare 
had  intended  to  be  the  crowning  close  of  the 
drama.  Shylock  stole  off  the  stage  with  a  savage 
snarl  and  lowering  scowl,  but  we  were  taken  back 
to  Belmont  to  witness  the  triumph  and  happiness 
of  Portia.  It  was  not  till  the  play  had  a  long  run 
that  it  was  abridged,  in  spite  of  many  remon- 
strances, to  make  a  way  for  an  afterpiece.  Then 
Shylock,  without  being  a  becoming  part,  certainly 


SHYLOCK — 1879.  105 

suits  Mr.  Irving  to  a  wonder.  He  has  nothing 
Jewish  in  him  by  nature  —  a  Httle  narrowness 
about  the  eyes  perhaps,  but  that  is  due  to  short 
sight,  certainly  not  another  feature  —  and  yet 
there  is  hardly  any  —  if  any  —  other  part  in  which 
he  is  so  nearly  quit  of  Henry  Irving  as  he  is  in 
that  of  the  Jew.  His  peculiarities  fit  the  part  so 
far  as  he  clings  to  them  and  he  has  taken  the 
broad  generalities  of  the  character  as  a  type,  in 
both  hands  and  moulded  them  to  fit  the  details  of 
personalit}'  of  which  he  is  master.  Now  this,  we 
take  it,  is  a  very  high  standard  of  histrionic  art  and 
power,  and  in  this  respect  Shylock  is  one  of  his 
great  achievements. 

A  very  able  criticism  of  the  presentment  was 
published  in  the  Daily  News.  "  He  is  not  the  de- 
,  crepit  Jew  nor  the  grotesque  Jew.  *  *  *  Malignant 
by  nature  he  scarcely  seems  to  be,  though  the 
ever-present  hunger  for  retaliation  on  behalf  of 
himself  and  his  race  gathers  strength  from  perse- 
cution, till  it  reaches  its  height  in  the  famous  scene 
with  Tubal.  Shylock  is  represented  by  Mr.  Ir- 
ving as  an  old,  though  not  a  very  old  man.  The 
most  striking  departure  from  the  traditional  per- 
formance is  the  comparatively  listless  air  of  his 
demeanor  in  the  trial  scene,  only  relieved,  as  it  is 
once  or  twice,   by  outbursts   of  ferocious  eager- 


106  HENRY    IRVING. 

ness.  But  the  prevailing  mood  in  this  scene  is  that 
of  a  mind  that  has  brooded  over  vengeance  until 
the  sleepless  eyes  have  grown  hollow,  the  mind 
become  vacant,  the  outward  world  endowed  with  a 
weird  unreal  aspect,  and  vengeance  itself  is  like 
the  predominant  image  of  a  dream.  Thus,  in  the 
end,  even  hatred  seems  to  fade  out,  and  when 
Gratiano's  brutal  jest  arouses  him,  he  simply  fixes 
his  eyes  slowly  upon  his  persecutor,  shakes  his 
head,  and  turning,  disappears  from  the  scene  with 
a  slow  walk  and  downcast  look.  The  tendency  of 
the  performance  is  to  lessen  our  hatred  of  the  Jew, 
to  give  prominence  to  his  wrongs  and  to  suggest 
that  his  avarice  is  but  the  habit  of  a  persecuted 
tribe." 

The  production  of  T/ie  Merchant  of    Venice 
gave  occasion  to  an  interesting  observation  in  the 

Theati'e,  to  which  we  shall  again  refer  in  discuss- 
ing Mr.  Irving's  social  influence  as  the  "  Member 
for  the  Stage"  as  we  may  call  him.  "This  revival 
at  the  Lyceum,"  says  the  critic,  "  deals  another 
blow  at  the  movement  for  establishing  a  national 
theatre  ;  *  *  *  its  promoters  are  now  wholly  unable 
to  pretend  that  a  theatre  in  which  the  poetic 
drama  can  be  adequately  presented  has  yet  to  be 
established.      The    revival    of     TJie    Merchant   of 

Venice,  regarded  from  any  point  of  view  is  at  least 


SHYLOCK — 1879.  107 

equal  —  and  we  are  not  speaking  without  knowl- 
edge—  to  anything  that  has  been  done  in  the 
subsidized  theatres  of  the  European  continent. 
Mr.  Irving's  Shylock  and  Miss  Terry's  Portia 
could  hardly  be  surpassed  ;  the  performance,  as  a 
whole,  is  distinguished  by  an  ensemble  hitherto 
supposed  to  be  unattainable  beyond  the  precincts 
of  the  The'atre  Fraiifais.  *  *  *  Mr.  Irving  in  short 
has  made  Shakespeare  popular. 

"  That  Shylock  will  take  a  prominent  place 
among  the  characters  that  Mr.  Irving  has  assumed 
there  can  be  no  question.  The  impersonation  is 
full  of  his  best  qualities  as  an  actor — imagination, 
sympathy,  independence  of  thought,  and  wealth 
of  illustrative  detail.  Shylock  appears  before  us 
under  three  different  aspects  ;  first  he  is  the  usurer, 
then  the  outraged  father,  and  finally  the  vengeful 
creditor.  Mr.  Irving's  appearance  is  in  harmony 
with  his  view  of  the  part.  He  comes  before  us  as 
a  man  of  between  fifty  and  sixty  years  of  age. 
His  acting  at  the  beginning  is  studiously  quiet  in 
tone.      It  is  as  he  utters  the  words : 

'  Antonio  shall  become  bound,  —  well?' 

that    the    idea    of    vengeance    crosses    his    rnind. 

"  The  scene  which   follows  Jessica's   fhght  is 

sustained  with  great  power.  *  *  *  Then  comes  the 


I08  HENRY    IRVING. 

fierce  thirst  for  revensfe  which  follows  the  news  of 
Antonio's  ill-fortune,  and  again  the  actor  rises 
equal  to  the  requirements  of  the  situation.  By 
the  time  of  the  trial,  however,  the  storm  has  sub- 
sided into  a  dead  calm.  *  *  *  His  face  wears  a  hard, 
set  expression,  relieved  at  long  intervals  bj^  a 
glance  of  bitter  hate  at  Antonio,  or  a  faint  smile 
of  triumph.  Nor  is  this  superb  calm  less  conspicu- 
ous when  the  cause  turns  against  him ;  the  scales 
drop  from  his  hands — but  that  is  all.  Nothing 
can  be  finer  and  more  impressive  than  his  final 
exit  which  brought  the  performance  to  a  close 
worthy  of  what  had  gone  before. 

"The  Portia  of  Miss  Ellen  Terry  is  one  of  her 
brightest  impersonations  and  she  now  surpasses 
even  what  she  did  at  the  Prince  of  Wales's  Theatre 
four  or  five  years  ago.  While  London  possesses 
such  artists  as  Mr.  Irving  and  Miss  Terry  the 
public  interest  in  the  higher  forms  of  drama  is  not 
likely  to  languish." 

"  The  performance  is  altogether  consistent  and 
harmonious,  and  displays  anew  that  power  of  self- 
control  which  has  lately  come  to  Mr.  Irving  as  a 
fresh  possession.  Every  temptation  to  extrava- 
gance or  eccentricity  of  action  was  resolutely 
resisted  and  with  the  happiest  results.  Mr.  Ir- 
ving's  Shylock,  old,  haggard,  halting,  sordid,  rep- 


lOLANTIIE — 1880.  '  109 

resents    the    dignity    and   intellect   of  the   play." 
(Button  Cook). 

"  As  Shakespeare  went  below  the  surface  of 
realistic  comedy,"  says  another  critic,  "  to  inspire 
his  Jew  with  fervent  pride  of  race  and  meditative 
individuality,  so  Irving  has  gone  below  the  moral 
stateliness  of  modern  Shylocks,  to  impart  to  his 
impersonation,  at  its  very  heart,  the  ruling  feat- 
ures of  a  Jew  such  as  Shakespeare  has  drawn. 
These  feelings  are  betrayed  in  his  face,  in  his  port, 
in  his  postures,  and  in  his  gait.  *  *  *  As  in  the 
play,  so  in  the  acting,  the  greatest  intellectual 
triumph  lies  in  the  ample  grasp  and  powerful  ex- 
pression of  Shylock's  profound  and  consuming 
Hebraism.  Shakespeare's  composition  abounds 
in  the  loftiest  and  in  the  lowliest  treatment  of  the 
subject.  Irving's  rendering  has  caught  the  motive 
and  vivified  the  details  of  the  theme."  The 
breadth  and  keenness  of  this  critique  is  very 
remarkable,  and  shows  a  sound  appreciation  of 
Hebrew  character  and  of  Shakespeare's  masterly 
comprehension  of  it,  as  well  as  a  very  judicious 
sympathy  with  the  strong  grasp  that  Mr.  Irving 
has  on  any  part  worthy  of  his  thoughtful  talent. 

The  Merchant  of  Venice  deserved,  and  had,  a 
very  long  run  ;  it  was  not  till  it  had  been  played 
two  hundred  and  fifty  times  that  a  change  was 


no  HENRY    IRVING. 

thought  necessary,  and  then  Charles  I.  was  repro- 
duced. On  the  20th  of  May,  1880,  Miss  Ellen 
Terry  took  her  benefit  in  the  part  of  the  blind 
princess  in  lolantJie.  This  is  a  "  dramatic  idyl," 
adapted  for  the  stage  by  Mr.  Wills  —  as  King 
Rene's  daugJiter  had  been  by  Mr.  (now  Sir  Theo- 
dore) Martin  —  from  a  Swedish  poem  by  Henrik 
Herz.  This  play  continued  to  be  acted  till  the 
end  of  the  season  as  an  afterpiece  to  TJic  Mer- 
chant of  Venice,  which  —  as  has  been  said — was 
curtailed  of  its  last  act  to  allow  of  this  arrange- 
ment lolanthe  was  Miss  Terry's  play  ;  but  there 
was  a  pretty  part  for  Mr.  Irving  in  Count  Tristan, 
which  he  made  "picturesque  and  chivalrously 
reverent."  "The  part  makes  no  great  demand 
on  Miss  Terry's  resources,  but  it  bears  high  wit- 
ness to  her  artistic  gifts.  No  performer  of  our 
time  possesses  in  anything  like  the  same  degree 
the  power  of  casting  off  the  special  accent  of 
modern  life,  and  of  passing  without  effort  into 
the  region  of  ideal  fancy.  *  *  In  the  ability  to 
embody  a  conception  of  primitive  grace,  and  to 
express  the  simpler  moods  of  feeling,  either  joyous 
or  pathetic,  that  are  their  fitting  accompaniments, 
she  is,  to  our  thinking,  without  a  rival  upon  the 
stage." 

So  wrote  Mr.  Comyns  Case  a  propos  to  lolanthe 


THE    CORSICAN    BROTHERS  — 1880.  Ill 

and  we  have  quoted  his  opinion  because  it  seems 
to  us  one  of  the  truest  criticisms  ever  written  of 
this  charming  actress.  She  has  not  the  whole  art 
of  conceaUng  art,  but  when  artlessness  is  to  the 
point  she  is  incomparable,  and  the  remarks  here 
quoted  are  equally  applicable  to  her  performance 
in  the  first  act  of  The  Cup,  in  Olivia,  and  in  Leti- 
tia  Hardy. 

Mr.  Irving  reopened  his  theatre  that  autumn 
with  The  Corsican  Brothers.  He  was  received 
with  the  hurricane  of  welcome  which  now  always 
awaits  him  after  his  holiday,  and  which  he  cer- 
tainly has  taken  infinite  pains  and  spared  no  ex- 
pense to  deserve.  But  probably  not  one  of  his 
friends  and  admirers  that  evening  failed  to  feel  a 
pang  of  regret  at  his  selecting  that  vapid  melo- 
drama for  rentree  when  he  had  made  his  last  bow 
in  the  gabardine  of  the  Shakespearian  Jew. 

The  story  of  the  play  need  not  be  told  here.  We 
who  can  remember  its  first  production  by  Charles 
Kean,  with  Alfred  Wigan  as  Chateau  Renaud, 
must  confess  that  its  effect  in  Mr.  Irving's  hands 
was  inadequate.  Perhaps  it  is  because  he  has  ac- 
customed us  to  stronger  meat — to  the  horror  of 
TJie  Bells,  the  pathos  of  Charles  /.,  the  tenderness 
of  Hamlet — that  the  situations  of  this  melodrama, 
which,  thirty  }'ears  ago  created   a  perfect  furore 


112  HENRY    IRVING. 

among-  London  play-goers,  now  produce  compara- 
tively little  effect.  But  we  are  inclined  to  think  it 
is  partly  owing  to  a  defect,  an  error  in  judgment, 
pointed  out  by  Mr.  Dutton  Cook,  a  very  com.pe- 
tent  critic,  who  thinks  that  Mr.  Irving  failed  to 
suggest  the  glamour  of  mystery  and  impending 
doom,  the  key-note  which  Charles  Kean  was  so 
careful  to  strike.  The  loss  of  this  element  is 
fatal  to  the  interest  of  the  play ;  nothing  short  of 
an  irresistible  destiny  can  give  coherence  to  such 
an  inconsequent  plot  and  to  the  incalculable  be- 
havior of  Fabien  dei  Franchi.  However,  the 
Athenaeum  differs  from  us.  "  Mr.  Irving's  per- 
formance of  the  twins,"  it  says,  "  is  full  of  color, 
and  the  fateful  element  is  well  shown."  It  is  in 
the  last  act  that  he  is  seen  at  his  best ;  still,  there 
is  a  want  of  continuity  of  character  in  his  Fabien, 
who,  in  the  first  act,  is  so  prompt  and  brusque  and 
here  has  developed  into  a  cool  and  resolute  duel- 
list. The  current  of  events  is  exciting  it  is  true, 
and  as  Louis  Mr.  Irving  gives  us  one  of  his 
touches  of  courteous  sentiment  in  his  action  and 
demeanor  towards  Emilie  de  L'Esparre  ;  but  — 
excepting  that  what  is  worth  doing  at  all  is  worth 
doing  well  —  the  wonder  remains  that  Mr.  Irving 
ever  thought  the  parts  of  the  twins  deserving  of  so 
much  elaboration  and  finish.      But  he  knows   the 


THE    CUP — I  88  I.  113 

saying  about  "  Toujoiirs  perdrix,"  and  though  the 
parts  of  the  dei  Franchi  are  not  so  high  a  mark 
as  Mr.  Irving  can  aim  at — and  hit,  he  is  no  doubt 
judicious  to  give  himself  opportunities  for  the  dis- 
play of  a  very  considerable  versatility,  and  the 
play  was  so  far  a  success  that  it  held  the  stage, 
sometimes  as  a  first  piece  before  a  comedy,  and 
sometimes  as  an  afterpiece,  following  The  Cup,  for 
some  months. 

At  the  New  Year  The  Cup  was  produced 
(January  3d)  and  expectation  ran  high  though 
doubts  were  felt  as  to  the  success  of  another 
poetical  drama  by  the  poet  laureate.  The  Clip 
however  was  a  very  different  piece  of  work 
from  the  dreary  and  didactic  drama  of  Qiiee^i 
Mary,  brought  out  five  years  previously 
under  Mrs.  Bateman's  auspices ;  and  while 
Miss  Terry  could  not  probably  have  played  Queen 
Mary  it  is  very  certain  that  Miss  Bateman  could 
have  done  but  little  with  the  first  act  of  Camma. 
"The  author  of  The  Ciip^'  says  Mr.  Comyns  Case, 
"  has  good  reason  to  be  content  with  the  ser- 
vices of  those  who  have  undertaken  the  labor 
of  presenting  his  work  to  the  public.  I  can  think 
of  no  other  actor  who  could  have  given  the  part 
of  Syno*ix  the  impression  of  vitality  which  it 
assumes  in  Mr.  Irving's  hands  *  *  in  the  earlier 

8 


114  HENRY    IRVING. 

scenes  with  Camma  the  sinister  softness  of  his 
wooing  carries  the  subtlest  suggestion  of  the 
inherent  falseness  of  his  character.  There  is  no 
question  of  failure  in  respect  of  The  Cup  in  the 
form  in  which  it  is  presented  at  the  Lyceum ;  its 
success  is  beyond  dispute,  and  the  causes  of  its  suc- 
cess are  obvious  enough.  It  is  superbly  mounted 
and  it  is  admirably  acted."  The  story,  bor- 
rowed from  an  antique  source,  may  be  said  to  be 
the  primeval  tragedy  of  life ;  a  simple  as  purely 
human  and  as  disastrous  as  that  of  Cain  and 
Abel.  A  man — a  Galatian  lord  loves  his  neigh- 
bor's wife  and  kills  the  husband.  The  woman 
loathes  and  murders  him  by  putting  poison  into 
the  cup  of  which  both  must  drink  at  their  mar- 
riage feast.  The  motives  are  so  elementary  that 
no  genuine  development  of  character  is  needed, 
and  the  poet,  it  may  be  said,  has  given  us  abso- 
lutely none ;  there  is  a  sense  of  poetical  situation 
but  a  lack  of  grip  in  painting  the  human  forces 
that  lead  up  to  it,  and  even  Mr.  Irving,  though  he 
made  the  villain  a  man,  could  not  give  him  much 
individuality.  But  for  this,  he  and  Miss  Terry 
would  have  been  admirably  suited  with  their 
parts  and  indeed  "  as  it  is  the  outlines  have  been 
really  admirably  understood  and  rendered  by  both 
actor  and  actress.      Mr.    Irving's  own   power  of 


THE    belle's   stratagem — 1881.  II5 

grim  satire  serves  him  in  good  stead  in  giving 
vitality  to  the  picture  ;  he  was  never  more  incisive 
in  his  method ;  he  never  expressed  with  a  more 
extraordinary  fidehty  the  force  of  evil  and  mean 
desire.  Miss  Terry  has  seldom  been  seen  to 
greater  advantage  than  in  the  first  act  at  any  rate. 
She  is  not  a  tragic  actress  though  her  power  of 
representing  a  degree  of  personal  anguish  that  is 
in  one  sense  genuinely  tragical  is  very  con- 
siderable; but  her  force  is  not  great  enough 
to  carry  her  through  scenes  of  violence."  The 
church  scene  in  Mttch  Ado  About  Nothing 
and  the  sorrows  of  the  wretched  Olivia  are 
more  fitted  to  her  delicate  and  pathetic  means 
of  expression  and  her  touching  tones  and  accent. 
In  March  Mr.  Irving  published  a  bill  of  "  pros- 
pective arrangements,"  and  announced  that  he  pro- 
posed varying  the  programme ;  that  April  9th 
would  be  the  last  of  TJie  Corsican  Brothers,  and 
that  Mr.  Booth's  visit  would  add  still  further  to 
the  attractions  he  should  offer  during  the  summer 
season.  After  a  short  holiday  in  Passion  week, 
April  9th  to  1 6th,  The  Belle's  Stratagem  took  the 
place  of  Tlie  Corsica?i  Brothers  ;  it  was  still  pre- 
ceded by  The  Cup  and  the  remarkable  versatility 
thus  exhibited  by  both  Mr.  Irving  and  Miss  Terry 
was,  no  doubt,  as  clever  as  it  was  startling. 

8  * 


Il6  HENRY   IRVING. 

The  Athenaeum  thought  Doricourt  too  elabo- 
rate, "in  place  of  simplicity  we  find  extravagance 
and  caricature ;"  but  we  fail  to  see  where  the  sim- 
plicity could  "  come  in,"  for,  if  there  is  any  thing 
which  Doricourt  is  not,  it  is  simple.  The  Daily 
Neivs,  whose  admiration  for  Mr  Irving  is  at  all 
times  tempered  with  judgment,  and  sometimes 
with  very  good  judgment,  is  we  think  in  this  in- 
stance hypercritical ;  or  perhaps  the  critic  had  not 
made  due  allowance,  after  seeing  Mr  Irving  die  in 
long  and  writhing  agony  as  Synorix,  for  his  resur- 
rection as  a  somewhat  profligate  beau  of  the  last 
century.  "  He  does  not  attain  the  ideal  of  the 
character,"  not  being  graceful  so  much  as  eccen- 
tric even  in  the  ballroom.  "  Yet  the  perform- 
ance, even  so  far,  cannot  be  said  to  be  uninterest- 
ing ;  and  in  the  scenes  in  which  Doricourt  feigns 
madness  the  actor  develops  a  power  of  combining 
the  grotesquely  ludicrous  with  a  tinge  of  serious 
reality  that  is  curiously  impressive." 

This  is  the  truth  —  it  is  "curiously  impres- 
sive." It  is  a  little  vexing  to  see  Synorix — Ham- 
let—  Othello,  playing  the  fool;  but  he  is  so 
desperately  in  earnest  in  acting  that  he  is  acting, 
that  our  attention  is  involuntarily  riveted.  This 
madness,  quasi  madness,  could  not  for  an  instant 
take  in  any  rational  creature ;  it  is  the  gravity  of 


THE  belle's  stratagem — 1 88 1.       117 

purpose  that  appeals  to  us  and  though  we  laugh 
frankly  enough  at  Doricourt's  v^agaries  it  is  rather 
in  spite  of  ourselves.  With  regard  to  the  want  of 
grace  it  is,  curiously  enough,  not  lack  of  elegance. 
It  is  as  natural  a  defect — for  we  confess  that  the 
accusation  has  some  foundation — as  it  might,  and 
indeed  must,  have  been  to  many  a  man  born  in 
Doricourt's  rank  of  life  and  destined  to  swagger 
through  the  world  as  a  fine  gentleman — in  fact, 
the  absence  of  apparently  studied  grace  lends  it 
the  elegance  of  a  man  whose  birth  and  position 
can  dispense  with  adventitious  polish. 

"  Doricourt,"  says  Mr.  Button  Cook,  "  with  his 
airs  and  graces  is  one  of  the  characters  which  Mr. 
Irving  delights  to  play  from  time  to  time,  to  show 
us  that  a  thousand  performances  of  The  Bells  and 
of  tragedy  have  not  dulled  his  sense  of  humor  and 
capacity  to  amuse.  His  performance  is  wonderfully 
complete,"  worthy  in  finish  and  whimsical  detail  to 
be  compared  with  poor  Edward  Sothern's  Dun- 
dreary. "  I  can  remember,"  says  Mr.  Clement  Scott, 
"  when  Mr.  Irving  played  it  first,  a  comparatively 
unknown  man,  and  it  is  a  much  better  performance 
now — more  thoughtful,  more  studied,  more  com- 
plete. Words  fail  me  to  express  the  singular 
charm  and  spell  of  Miss  Ellen  Terry  as  Letitia 
Hardy."     In  the  dedication  of  her  comedy  Mrs. 


Il8  HENRY    IRVING. 

Cowley  explains  that  it  was  her  intention  to  draw 
a  woman  who,  "  to  the  most  lively  sensibility, 
fine  understanding,  and  elegant  accomplishments, 
should  unite  that  beautiful  reserve  and  delicacy 
which,  while  they  veil  those  charms,  render  them  all 
the  more  interesting."  Miss  Terry  has  understood 
this  intention  and  her  reading  does  justice  to  the 
ideal  ;  she  adds  to  it  a  sparkle  which  Mrs.  Cow- 
ley's excellent  dramatic  treatment  of  the  character 
gives  am.ple  scope  for  and  which  makes  Miss 
Letitia  Hardy  a  far  more  engaging  person  than 
her  creator's  rather  priggish  description  might 
otherwise  prepare  us  for.  Miss  Terry  has  thrown 
herself  into  the  humor  of  the  situation  as  well  as 
the  refinement  of  the  character ;  Letitia  Hardy 
lives  and  moves  the  ideal  lady  and  the  most  irre- 
sistible of  hoidens. 

It  was  in  July,  i88o,  that  the  London  public 
were  first  promised  a  visit  from  Mr.  Booth  and 
looked  forward  to  it  with  the  greatest  interest. 
Acting,  not  merely  as  an  amusement  but  as  an  art, 
has  of  late  years  become  far  better  understood  by 
the  more  cultivated  classes  in  England  than  it  had 
been  during  a  long  period  when  —  though  there 
were  many  capital  actors  on  the  English  stage  — 
the  demand  had  been  less  for  an  intellectual  and 
critical  pleasure  than  for  a  hearty  laugh  or  a  no  less 


BOOTH    AND    IRVING — I  88  I.  II 9 

hearty  cry.  "  It  will  be  especially  interesting,"  said 
the  Athenaeum  in  speaking  of  Edwin  Booth's  ad- 
vent, "  to  contVast  his  methods  with  those  of  the 
one  English  tragedian  who  has  risen  to  eminence 
within  the  last  ten  years  *  *  *  the  warmth 
of  personal  welcome  which  is  not  denied  to  a 
Salvini  or  a  Rossi — poetical  aliens,  who  gesticu- 
late through  an  Italianized  Shakespeare  —  v/ill 
certainly  be  accorded  to  one  who  comes  to  us 
from  a  greater  England,  speaking  Shakespeare's 
tongue." 

"  The  engagement  of  Edwin  Booth  at  the  Ly- 
ceum in  conjunction  with  Henry  Irving  is  just  the 
kindly,  generous  and  spirited  act  that  might  have 
been  expected  from  an  actor  ever  on  the  alert  to 
do  credit  to  his  profession.  The  play  chosen  will 
be  Othello^  "When  Edwin  Booth  arrived  in 
this  country,  a  foolish,  weak,  and  impotent  attempt 
was  made  on  the  part  of  an  ungenerous  faction  to 
declare  that  Henry  Irving  was  jealous  of  him. 
Nothing  was  further  from  the  truth.  Booth  never 
believed  it  to  be  true,  and  Irving  was  guiltless  of 
any  such  idea.  *  *  *  Booth  always  wanted  to  play 
at  Irving's  theatre.  *  *  *  Everything  that  courtesy 
and  good  feeling  could  do  was  done,  and  Irving- 
treated  Booth  as  a  friend  :  '  Come  to  my  theatre 
and  play  with  me,  and  we  will  have  such  a  com- 


I20  HENRY    IRVING. 

bination  as  has  not  been  seen  for  some  time.' " 
(Theatre,  April,  1881). 

And  so  it  was  settled.  During  the  months  of 
May  and  June  the  regular  business  of  the  theatre 
was  varied  by  performances,  three  nights  a  week, 
of  Othello,  Mr.  Irving  and  Mr.  Booth  playing  the 
Moor  and  lago  alternately.  Mr.  Booth  had  al- 
ready been  in  England  some  montlis,  and  these 
were  in  fact  his  farewell  performances  in  England. 

A  few  words  as  to  Mr.  Booth's  birth  and  the 
traditions  he  inherited  may  here  be  appropriate. 
His  father  was  an  Englishman  whose  misfortune  it 
was  when  still  young  to  be  pitted  against  Edmund 
Kean  who  on  the  occasion  of  their  playing  to- 
gether—  Kean  as  Othello  and  Booth  as  lago — 
worked  himself  up  to  such  a  performance  as  has 
rarely  been  seen  or  dreamed  of.  Booth  felt  that 
with  such  a  rival  on  the  stage  his  chances  were 
nil ;  he  left  the  Drury  Lane  boards  to  Kean,  and 
after  acting  in  Covent  Garden  for  a  few  years  went 
to  America  where  he  steadily  improved,  working, 
no  doubt,  on  the  grand  traditions  of  the  old  Eng- 
lish stage,  which  he  transmitted,  with  his  talents, 
to  his  son.  The  contrast  of  method  between 
Booth  and  Irving  is  unmistakable.  Booth,  it  is 
true,  has  to  some  extent  moved  in  the  same  direc- 
tion as  Irving ;  he  has  thought  for  himself  and  is 


OTHELLO    AND    L\GO— 1881.  121 

no  slave  to  tradition  ;  still  as  compared  with  him 
Irving  is  revolutionary.  However,  anything  like 
partisanship  or  bitter  rivalry  was,  of  course,  quite 
out  of  the  question.  "  No  one,"  says  the  -Daily 
News,  "  will  suspect  Mr.  Irving  of  grudging  his 
American  brother  in  art  any  portion  of  the  gener- 
ous welcome  which  assuredly  awaits  Mr.  Irving 
when  he  shall  undertake  his  professional  visit  to 
the  United  States,  so  long  in  contemplation."  The 
English  critics,  too,  it  must  be  said,  did  Edwin 
Booth  every  justice.  The  only  rock  round  which 
he  could  not  steer — over  which  he  could  not  soar, 
was  the  fact  which  we  have  indicated  on  the  first 
page  of  this  little  book ;  namely,  that  as  Mr.  Ir- 
ving's  triumphant  success  is  the  result  of  his 
individuality  as  the  representative  to  Englishmen 
of  the  spirit  of  their  age  and  tendencies,  the 
actor  who,  like  Booth,  represents  or  at  any  rate 
recalls  the  spirit  of  the  past,  has  not,  and  cannot 
obtain,  the  same  hold  upon  their  sympathies. 
It  is  very  gre-atly  to  be  regretted  that  the  Amer- 
ican public  should  not  see  the  really  wonderful 
exhibition  of  art  offered  by  OtJiello  played  by 
Irving,  Booth,  and  Ellen  Terry.  Opinions  differ 
widely  as  to  the  merits  of  the  performance  in 
detail ;  but  the  very  variety  of  fault  found  by  the 
critics — whether  Irving  plays  Othello  and  Booth 


122  HENRY    IRVING. 

lago,  or  vice  versa — proves  that  though  nothing 
is  or  can  ever  be  faultless  the  effects  are  undoubt- 
edly to  a  considerable  extent  in  the  sympathy  — 
perhaps  even  in  the  mood  —  of  the  spectators.  In 
Othello  one  of  the  great  beauties  of  Irving's  act- 
ing finds  full  play :  "  his  tenderness,"  says  The 
Saturday  Reviczv,  "  to  Desdemona  is  exquisite ;" 
but,  as  usual,  "  the  phrasing  is  sometimes  unfortu- 
nate." However,  "the  present  performance  of 
Othello  (after  an  interval  of  five  years  since  1876) 
marks  more  clearly  than  anything  else  could  do 
the  amount  of  thought  and  pains  which  Mr.  Ir- 
ving must  constantly  devote  to  his  art." 

It  is  in  the  part  of  lago  however  that  both 
Mr.  Booth  and  Mr.  Irving  gave  such  a  piece  of 
finished  acting  as  made  their  performances  an 
education  in  itself.  Let  any  young  actor,  take  up 
lago  for  himself,  read  into  it,  and  distil  out  of  it 
every  trait  of  character,  every  point  of  situation, 
feeling  and  emotion  that  he  is  capable  of  attributing 
to  the  Ancient — as  a  man  and  as  influenced  by 
the  other  characters  ;  then  let  him  see  first  Irving 
and  then  Booth  perform  the  part  and  he  will  be 
able  to  form  some  idea  of  the  work  they  have 
done,  and  that  remains  for  him  to  do.  Let 
him  take  to  heart  the  fact  that  the  gifts  and  the 
experience  he  here  sees  displayed  to  their  highest 


OTHELLQ    AND     lAGO — ;l88l.  123 

pitcli  of  development  are  also  brought  to  bear  on 
other  parts,  less  difficult  no  doubt  but  not  less  care- 
fully handled,  and  he  will  understand  that  though 
he  may  not  hope  or  even  wish  ever  to  play  lago 
he  has  chosen  an  art  which  makes  constant  de- 
mands on  his  patience,  industr)^,  and  sympathetic 
endeavor.  "Mr.  Irving's  lago  is  one  of  his  best 
Shakespearian  essays,"  writes  Mr.  Button  Cook; 
"forcible,  ingenious,  characteristic — a  little  melo- 
dramatic perhaps  here  and  there ;  but  his  reputa- 
tion for  honesty  is  made  readily  intelligible;  it 
arises  from  his  rude  frank  air,  now  cynical,  now 
convivial  yet  always  really  malevolent  *  *  We 
have  here  two  simply  masterly  lagos,  two  insuffi- 
cient Othellos."  In  comparing  the  two  lagos  we 
find  The  Saturday  Revieiv,  always  conscientious 
and  careful  though  sometimes  incautious  in  its 
criticism,  selecting  certain  points  of  difference  to 
the  advantage  of  one  and  the  other  actor.  "  Mr. 
Irving's  lago  had  been  eagerly  expected.  *  *  * 
With  one  exception,  as  it  seems  to  us,  Mr.  Irving 
shows  us  an  ideal  lago ;  and  this  exception  we 
take  to  the  seriousness  of  the  revengeful  motive 
he  gives  to  the  Ancient.  He  seems  to  take  lago's 
jealousy  of  Othello,  if  not  of  Cassio,  with  regard 
to  Emilia  as  a  real  thing."  *  *  "  Mr.  Booth 
seemed  to   indicate   that    the   notion  of  Emilia's 


124  HENRY   IRVING. 

infidelity  is  in  the  first  instance  merely  an  excuse 
for  his  own  villany."  Again,  and  on  the  other 
side:  "Mr.  Booth  disappointed  our  expectations 
in  the  well-known  lines  ending : 

•  Out  of  her  own  goodness  make  the  net 
That  shall  enmesh  them  all.' 

"  His  action  was  full  of  grace,  meaning,  and 
force ;  but  his  tones  and  expression  seemed  to 
miss  the  exultation  of  a  man  who  has  just  thought 
out  his  villanous  scheme,  and  who  delights  as 
much  in  his  own  power  of  so  thinking  it  out  as  in 
the  probable  success  of  the  scheme  itself"  In 
Mr.  Irving's  performance  "  we  must  point  out  the 
honest  reluctance  with  which  he  seems  to  give  his 
evidence  against  Cassio.  Close  upon  this  and 
upon  his  seeming  friendly  cheering  of  Cassio, 
comes  the  soliloquy  ending  with : 

'  And  out  of  her  own  goodness  make  the  net 
That  shall  enmesh  them  all.' 

"The  diabolical  intensity  of  this  was  much  aided 
by  the  impressive  stillness  of  the  actor  until  the 
last  picturesque  and  meaning  gesture  of  triumph." 

From  the  same  weekly  we  cull  the  following 
paragraph,  which  our  readers  may  take  for  what 
it  is  worth.     We  believe  it  is  true  that  Mr.  Booth 


OTHELLO    AND    lAGO — 1881.  I  25 

found  the  direction  at  the  Lyceum  worthy  of  the 
manager  and  he  certainly  was  immeasurably 
better  supported  there  than  he  had  been  at  Sad- 
lers'  Wells  where  he  first  acted  in  London.  "  By 
a  curious  inversion  or  confusion  of  language  Mr. 
Booth  has  been  represented,  in  an  account  coming 
from  America,  as  having  found  the  stage-manage- 
ment of  the  Lyceum,  as  it  would  seem  from  the 
context,  'so  bad  as  to  be  frightful,'  while  the 
direction  of  the  theatre  generally  was  not  what  it 
ought  to  be.  Now  it  is  tolerably  well  known 
that  Mr.  Booth  was,  on  the  contrary,  even  enthu- 
siastic in  his  praise  of  Mr.  Irving's  management, 
both  of  the  stage  and  of  the  theatre  generally. 
It  should  be  added  that  the  same  account 
contains  the  highest  praise  of  Mr.  Irving." 
(Saturday  Review,  July  16,  1881).  An  intelligent 
and  appreciative  critic  in  Macmillan's  Magazine, 
who  by  no  means  "  swallows  Irving  whole,"  has 
some  very  judicious  remarks  to  make  on  the 
subject:  "The  character  of  lago  as  understood 
and  presented  by  these  two  actors,"  he  says,  "very 
clearly  marks  the  distinguishing  quality  of  their 
respective  styles.  The  American  lago,  clear,  cool, 
and  precise,  admirably  thought  out,  never  devia- 
ting a  hair's-breadth  from  the  preconceived  plan ; 
design  and  execution  marching  hand-in-hand  with 


126  HENRY    IRVING. 

ordered  step  from  the  first  scene  to  the  last ;  a  per- 
formance of  marvellous  balance  and  regularity, 
polished  to  the  very  finger-nail.  The  English- 
man's startling,  picturesque,  irregular,  brilliant, 
sometimes  less  brilliant  than  bizarre,  but  always 
fresh  and  suggestive,  always  bearing  that  peculiar 
stamp  of  personality  which  has  so  often  saved  the 
actor  in  his  sorest  straits.  Nevertheless,  as  a  work 
of  art,  an  artistic  whole,  self-contained  and  com- 
plete, to  Mr.  Booth's  must  be  assigned  the  palm 
*  *  *  It  has  truly  been  said  of  Mr.  Irving  that 
he  is  never  commonplace,  but  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  this  freedom  from  commonplace  may 
be  purchased  at  the  expense  of  common-sense." 
The  whole  article  is  very  good,  sympathetic  but 
full  of  sound  criticism. 

"  Comparison  ceases  to  be  odious,"  says  the 
Daily  TelcgrapJi,  "  in  the  case  of  actors  so  dis- 
tinguished and  so  popular  as  Edwin  Booth  and 
Henry  Irving.  The  method  of  each  actor  starts 
from  opposite  points.  Mr.  Booth  moves  in  the 
path  chalked  out  by  his  father  and  the  traditions 
he  inherited ;  Mr.  Irving,  like  the  elder  Kean, 
'  translates  his  characters  with  great  freedom  and 
ingenuity  into  a  language  of  his  own,'  and  seems 
to  take  a  mischievous  delight  in  politely  granting 
the  value  of  the  various  readings  of  clever  men 


OTHELLO     AND     lAGO — 1 88 1.  12/ 

and  immediately  conceiving  something  totally  dif- 
ferent. In  Mr.  Booth's  Othello  the  classical  form 
is  strained  to  the  utmost  tension  while  Mr.  Irving's 
lago  is  occasionally  jeopardized  by  an  excess  of 
gesture  and  a  prodigality  of  variety."  Mr.  Booth's 
Othello  too,  it  may  be  observed  incidentally,  had 
the  same  fault  as  Irving's — even  more  marked 
perhaps  —  Desdemona  could  not  have  loved  him. 
Neither  of  them  could  be  the  ideal  Othello  to  any 
woman  excepting  by  such  a  process  of  rational 
self-persuasion  of  his  merits,  as  is  certainly  not 
presupposed  by  the  narrative  or  the  situation. 

Mr.  Irving's  benefit  on  Saturday,  July  23d, 
terminated  the  season  of  1881.  He  appeared,  we 
believe  for  the  first  and  last  time,  in  a  scene  with 
Miss  Terry  from  The  Hunchback,  in  which  he 
played  Modus  ;  but  he  could  not  altogether  look 
the  part,  which  is  that  of  a  bashful  student  lover, 
though  he  played  it  with  feeling.  His  old  friend 
Mr.  Toole  acted  for  him  in  one  of  his  most  popu- 
lar parts  ;  that  of  Tom  Cranky  in  the  Birthplace 
of  Podgers. 

In  the  speech  which  Mr.  Irving  made  to  the 
audience,  he  spoke  in  a  way  equally  becoming  to 
himself  and  flattering  to  Mr.  Booth,  of  their  per- 
formances together  :  "  For  myself  I  may  say  that 
his  artistic  fellowship,  his  perfect  courtesy  and  de- 


128  HENRY    IRVING. 

votion  to  our  common  art  have  made  Mr.  Booth's 
visit  here  one  of  the  most  dehghtful  occurrences 
in  my  remembrance." 

It  was  in   December,  1879,  for  the  benefit  of 
Mr.  WiHiam  Belford  —  "  a  man  whose  hand  was,  of 
old,  first  in  his  pocket  to  help  others,"  and   who 
had  fallen  into  bad  health  *  —  that  Mr.  Irving  first 
revived  TJie  Ttvo  Roses  at  the  Lyceum.  This  per- 
formance was  one  of  those  interesting  tributes  of 
respect  by  which  the   guild    of  actors   does   itself 
honor  while  honoring  and  substantially  helping  a 
fellow-artist.        Nearly    fifty    of    the    first    actors 
in  London  appeared  on  the  stage  before  an  en- 
thusiastic audience  whose  contributions,  by  way  of 
payment  for  places,  amounted  to  a  very  handsome 
sum.      "  Once    more,"   says   Mr.    Clement    Scott, 
"  Henry  Irving  has  played  Digby  Grant  and  I  am 
glad  of  it,  for  it  has  shown  incontestably  what  an 
actor  he    has    become  *  *  *  I    am    certain    that 
never  before  did  he  act  the   part  so  well,  or  any- 
thing like  so  well.  *  *  The  audience  at  the  close  of 
each  act  seemed  to  sink  back  in  the  stalls  with  a 
contented  sigh  saying:  'Ah  !  this  is  acting.'  "  And 
so  it  was,  and  I  really  don't  know  where  the  pes- 
simists will  find  anything  better.       "  Mr.   Irving's 
Digby   Grant  was   as   good   as  ever.     If  he   had 

*  Mr.  Belford  died  in  June,  1881. 


THE   TWO    ROSES — I  88 1.  1 29 

created  it  now  for  the  first  time  the  creation  would 
have  been  pronounced  a  worthy  successor  to  his 
Mathias,  Hamlet,  and  RicheHeu." 

When  the  Lyceum  Theatre  reopened,  newly 
decorated  and  in  many  ways  improved,  on  the 
26th  of  December,  1881,  Mr.  Irving  revived  The 
Two  Roses  in  which  he  had  "  created  "  the  part  of 
Digby  Grant  eleven  years  before.  The  revival 
was  an  immense  success;  Mr.  Irving  had  retouched 
the  picture  with  the  skill  and  judgment  given  by 
long  experience.  "  The  portrait  was  filled  in  with 
an  infinite  number  of  minute  but  valuable  touches;" 
and  here  again  we  find  the  critic  speaking  of  "  the 
curious  suggestiveness,"  of  certain  gestures,  ac- 
cents, and  actions,  v/hich  filled  up  the  outline 
given  by  the  clever  author  —  Mr.  Albery  —  in 
what  is  originally  a  capitally-written  character 
part,  so  as  to  give  it  the  vitality  of  an  elaborately- 
finished  picture.  "  Digby  Grant  is  infinitely  im- 
proved. To  the  plausibility  of  Mercadet  he  adds 
the  virtuous  assumption  of  Mr.  Pecksniff." 

But  TJie  Tzvo  Roses  was  only  a  lever  de  rideau 
before  the  serious  work  of  the  season.  In  March, 
1882,  Mr.  Irving  redeemed  a  promise  of  many 
months  standing  to  produce  Romeo  and  Juliet, 
and  the  mise-en-scene  and  dresses  were  marked  by 
the  magnificent   naturalism  which  —  for  good   or 


130  HENRY    IRVING. 

for  evil  —  he  has  been  instrumental  in  transfer- 
ring from  the  domain  of  Robertsonian  comedy,  as 
mounted  by  the  Bancrofts,  to  the  higher  realm  of 
poetical  and  tragical  drama.  It  was  not  less  splen- 
did than  TJie  Merchant  of  Venice  and  even  more 
beautiful ;  but  it  was  severely  criticised  on  those 
very  grounds. 

Mr.  Frederick  Wedmore  wrote  of  it  as  follows : 
"  One  of  the  pleasantest  things  to  remember  in 
connection  with  this  Lyceum  revival  will  be  the 
evidence  it  affords  of  the  employment  of  knowl- 
edge, skill,  and  artistic  sensibility.  The  acting  is 
not  insignificant  and  very  far  from  ludicrous,  but 
the  magnificence  of  the  accessories  are  now  and 
then  a  splendid  encumbrance.  Mr.  Irving's  judg- 
ment is  displayed  by  his  avoiding  any  effort  to 
look  like  a  smooth  and  comely  lad  ;  you  must  take 
the  man  as  he  is ;"  (how  impossible  with  Romeo — ) 
"  his  complete  activity  and  alertness,  his  pictu- 
resqueness  of  aspect  and  his  continual  intelligence 
of  the  character,  though  they  do  not  allow  him  to 
be  an  absolutely  ideal  Romeo,  allow  him  to  be  a 
Romeo  of  impulse,  fire,  and  passion."  ^^ Romeo  and 
Juliet,''  said  the  Daily  TelegrapJi,  "does  not  rise 
to  the  level  of  the  Lyceum  standard  in  point  of 
acting.  The  scenery  is  gorgeous.  Irving's  Romeo 
is  picturesque  and  careful  but  he  fails  to  convey 


ROMEO   AND   JULIET — I  882.  I3I 

the  idea  of  Romeo."  All  the  critics  agreed  that 
Miss  Terry's  Juliet  was  the  least  successful  thing 
she  had  ev^er  done. 

"  To  Mr.  Irving's  Romeo,"  said  the  SaUirday 
Review,  "  some  of  Hazlitt's  remarks  upon  Ed- 
mund Kean  in  the  same  part  may  be  not  inaptl}' 
applied :  '  In  going  to  see  Mr.  Kean  in  any  new 
character  we  do  not  go  in  the  expectation  of  see- 
ing either  a  perfect  actor,  or  perfect  acting ;  be- 
cause this  is  what  we  have  not  seen  either  in  him 
or  in  any  one  else.  But  we  go  to  see  (what  he 
never  disappoints  us  in)  great  spirit,  ingenuity,  and 
originality  given  to  the  text  in  general,  and  an 
energy  and  depth  of  passion  given  to  certain 
scenes  and  passages,  which  we  should  in  vain  look 
for  from  any  other  actor  on  the  stage.'  Mr.  Ir- 
ving has  many  advantages  which  Edmund  Kean 
had  not ;  —  it  would  seem  improbable,  for  instance, 
that  Kean  can  have  made  so  chivalrous  a  figure  of 
Romeo  as  Irving  does  —  and  he  does  not  invite 
the  censure  which  was  given  by  Hazlitt  to  Kean 
in  the  love  scenes.  *  *  Mr.  Irving  is  full  of 
thought  and  fancy  ;    but  he  is  not  Romeo." 

Mr.  Sala  —  our  old  friend  G.  A.  S. — in  the 
Illustrated  London  News  declares  that  "  as  the 
impassioned  lover  Mr.  Irving  satisfies  him,"  and  he 
gives  good  reason  for  the  faith  that  he  professes — 


132  HENRY    IRVING. 

"  a  powerful  and  soulful  impersonation,"  he  calls 
it — but  he  admits  that  he  stands  alone.  The 
mounting  was  confessedly  magnificent,  perhaps  it 
a  little  overweighted  the  performance.  "  Since  the 
days  when  Charles  Kean  began  to  supply  what 
was  derisively  called  upholstery  a  Shakespearian 
revival  has  come  to  mean  a  pageant.  To  Mr.  Ir- 
ving then  belongs  the  credit  of  having  furnished  a 
pageant  which  in  beauty  and  artistic  value  has  not 
been  equalled,  and  of  backing  it  up  by  an  inter- 
pretation of  the  play  as  competent  as  modern 
resources  will  permit.  *  *  That  the  representation 
in  the  principal  characters  or  in  any  of  the  char- 
acters touches  greatness  or  ever  rises  to  the  level 
of  the  best  Lyceum  performances  cannot  be  said. 
Mr.  Irving  introduces  much  intelligent  business, 
and  is  earnest  and  impassioned  —  but  he  fails  to 
convey  the  idea  of  Romeo."  (Daily  Nezvs).  Mr. 
Irving  himself,  however,  on  the  occasion  of  his 
benefit,  August  5th,  stoutly  defended  his  lavish 
use  of  decorations  and  accessories.  "  Romeo  and 
Juliet,"  he  said,  "was  no  light  undertaking,  and  it  is 
perhaps  worth  remembering  that  to  each  actor  in 
the  cast  it  was  a  first-night's  representation.  This 
in  a  play  of  Shakespeare's,  is  somewhat  remarka- 
ble, and  difficult  beyond  belief  to  those  who  do  not 
know  the  disadvantages  which  actors  labor  under 


ROMEO   AND   JULIET — 1882.  133 

on  their  first  appearance  in  what  are  called  legiti- 
mate parts.  *  *  It  was  thought  too  by  some  I  re- 
member that  I  had  overdone  our  play  with  scenery 
and  trappings.  That  I  distinctly  dispute.  Nothing 
in  my  mind  can  be  overdone  on  the  stage  that  is 
beautiful  —  I  mean  correct  and  harmonious,  and 
that  heightens,  not  dwarfs  the  imagination  and 
reality.  I  took  no  less  pains  comparatively  speak- 
ing in  producing  TJie  Tivo  Roses." 

Mr.  Irving's  address  was  characterized  through- 
out by  that  bonJwinie  and  intimacy  which  have 
long  given  a  friendly  aspect  to  his  relations  with 
the  public.  "  It  was  conspicuous,  among  other 
matters,  for  the  defence  of  long  runs.  Romeo  and 
Juliet  had  been  played  130  nights  in  succession  ;" 
he  almost  apologized  to  his  colleague  Miss  Terry 
for  the  severe  strain  he  had  thus  put  upon  her  "  but 
those  who  live  to  please  must  please  to  live."  He  did 
not,  however,  allude  —  perhaps  he  was  discreet  in 
not  alluding  —  to  the  question  as  to  how  far  very 
long  runs  are  advantageous  to  the  actor's  art,  and 
to  the  actor  himself  as  an  artist. 

Mr.  Irving  added  some  courteous  —  we  had  al- 
most said  affectionate  —  compliments  to  the  friends 
who  so  faithfully  and  perennially  support  his  bene- 
fits. "  Thanks  to  your  generous  favor  every  night 
is  a  benefit  to  me  as  a  manager ;  but  on  occasions 


134  HENRY    IRVING. 

like  this  I  come  forward  to  take  the  benefit  of  see- 
ing around  me  many  of  my  best  and  well-tried 
friends  who  throughout  my  career,  my  failures 
and  successes,  have  succored  me  with  their 
hearty  sympathy  and  cheered  me  with  ungrudging 
encouragement.  *  *  Whether  it  be  called  a  bene- 
fit, or  by  any  other  name,  I  shall  always  be  proud 
of  the  occasion  which  can  gather  together  such  a 
distinguished  assembly  as  have  honored  me  with 
their  presence  here  to-night."  Such  a  speech  as 
this  charms  and  flatters;  nay  touches  a  deeper 
fibre  of  genuine  enthusiasm.  In  June,  Mr.  Irving 
had  announced  his  purpose  of  visiting  America 
and  spending  six  months  there,  from  the  end  of 
October,  1883,  till  April,  1884,  taking  with  him  the 
Lyceum  company,  and  dresses  and  scenery  com- 
plete for  ten  pieces :  Hamlet,  Charles  the  First, 
The  Merchant  of  Venice,  Richard  the  Thi7'd, 
Richelieu,  The  Lyons  Mail,  The  Belle's  Stratagem, 
Louis  the  Eleventh,  The  Bells,  and  ]\LHch  Ado 
About  Nothing.  G.  A.  S.  advises  us  to  appeal  to 
the  hero  and  heroine  of  this  tour  —  which  may 
rather  be  called  a  progress  —  to  give  a  {tw  repre- 
sentations of  Romeo  and  Juliet  and  The  Cup.  He 
was  however,  as  we  have  seen,  in  a  minority  in 
admiring  Romeo  and  Juliet ;  and  with  regard  to 
Tlie  Cup  we  believe  that   Miss  Terry  at  any  rate 


PLANS    FOR   AMERICA — l882.  I35 

is  showing  the  better  part  of  valor  in  leaving  the 
part  of  Camma  at  home.  The  first  act  is  charm- 
ing, is  acting,  indeed  ;  but  the  second  is  scenery 
and  mounting,  et  praeterca  nihil — or  very  little. 
G.  A.  S.  prophesies  —  and  no  doubt  rightly  — 
that  "  the  Americans  will  go  wild  with  enthusiasm 
on  Miss  Ellen  Terry,"  but  Camma  would  risk  her 
prestige  we  fear  even  with  enthusiasts. 


After  a  holiday  of  only  6  or  8  weeks,  Romeo 
and  Juliet  was  again  taken  up  when  the  Lyceum 
reopened  in  September,  and  was  played  till  the 
middle  of  October.  Then  another  brilliant 
"  Shakespearian  revival  "  was  put  upon  the  stage. 
This  time  a  comedy ;  one  of  the  Arcadian  come- 
dies that  transport  us  to  a  realm  and  age  when 
"  all  the  men  were  brave  and  all  the  women  beau- 
tiful ;"  or  when  those  who  were  not  were  unhappy 
accidents  serving  as  a  foil  only  to  the  majority  who 
were. 

On  the  25th  of  July  of  this  year  Mr.  Irving 
had  read  the  part  of  Benedick  with  a  once  famous 
Beatrice,  Lady  Martin — formerly  Helen  Faucit  — 
whose  grace  and  intelligent  originality  bewitched 
the  play-goers  of  the  last  generation.     This  read- 


136  HENRY    IRVING. 

ing  must  have  been  extraordinarily  interesting, 
and  not  least  interesting  to  Irving  himself,  to 
whom  it  must  have  felt  like  a  prelude,  a  prelimi- 
nary chord  in  anticipation  of  the  performance 
which,  on  October  the  12th,  reminded  London 
play-goers  once  more  that  Shakespeare's  Comedy 
was,  if  possible,  even  more  lovely  than  his  Tragedy, 
and  that  Irving  knew  and  felt  that  it  was  alike  his 
duty  and  his  pleasure  to  interpret  Shakespeare. 

Much  Ado  About  Nothing  was  the  matter  in 
hand.  This  lovely  play,  sumptuously  mounted, 
ran  Romeo  and  Juliet  very  hard  in  the  splendor 
of  its  scenery  and  general  "get  up;"  and  in  the 
estimation  of  those  who  admire  Irving  and  Miss 
Terry  it  is  difficult  to  choose  between  the  gay 
romance  of  Much  Ado  and  the  melancholy  ro- 
mance of  Hamlet.  Benedick  does  not,  it  is  true, 
become  Mr.  Irving  quite  so  well  as  Hamlet  does, 
but  then  Beatrice  is  so  absolutely  written  for 
Ellen  Terry. 

It  was  long  since  this  play  had  been  put  on 
the  stage  and  longer  still  since  it  had  been 
thoroughly  well  done ;  still  its  merits  and  success 
were  not  comparative  but,  we  may  say,  superla- 
tive. Mrs.  Charles  Kean  had  been  the  last  Bea- 
trice—  a  rather  matronly  one  perhaps;  Miss  Glyn 
had  played  the  part,  but  tragedy  was  the  line  she 


MUCH    ADO    ABOUT   NOTHING — I  882.      1 37 

preferred  ;  Miss  Helen  Faucit  had  been  delightful 
in  it  we  are  told,  and  we  can  quite  believe  that 
she  gave  it  infinite  playful  grace,  though  she 
lacked  perhaps  the  audacity  of  Miss  Terry's 
humor.  Benedick  had  been  a  famous  part  of 
Charles  Kemble's,  and  that  elegant  actor  must, 
we  rather  suspect,  have  given  a  somewhat  more 
dignified  aspect  to  the  "officer  and  gentleman" — 
which  Benedick  undoubtedly  was  —  than  we  see 
in  Mr.  Irving's  performance.  At  the  same  time 
it  is  possible  that  the  Kemble  manner  was  at  least 
as  annoying  as  the  Irving  manner,  though  Charles 
Kemble  was  freer  from  it  than  his  more  famous 
brother  and  sister.  Macready  notes  in  his  diary 
that  he  acted  Benedick  "very  well"  —  much  to 
his  own  satisfaction  at  any  rate  —  and  Mr.  Wallack 
also  played  the  part  in  London.  He  again  was 
possibly  a  little  heavy  in  his  banter,  and  a  very 
little  over-solemnity  makes  Benedick  appear  as 
though  he  were  being  made  a  fool  of,  while  flighti- 
ness  and  flippancy  make  him  look  as  though  he 
really  were  a  fool. 

"  The  personal  peculiarities  and  shortcomings 
of  an  actor  of  any  force  are  speedily  forgiven  him. 
The  play-goers  of  the  past  soon  learnt  to  forget 
the  low  stature  of  Garrick  and  the  '  foggy  throat' 
of  John  Kemble.     It  is  understood  now  that  every 


138  HENRY    IRVING. 

delineation  presented  by  Mr.  Irving  must  suffer 
in  some  degree  from  the  irremediable  physical 
characteristics  of  the  actor."  (Nights  at  the  play. 
Othello). 

"Irving's  Romeo  could  not  pass  unchallenged," 
nor  can  his  Benedick,  though  the  challenge  is  a 
more  timid  one ;  but  for  pure  enjoyment  of  a 
play  —  or  going  to  the  play  as  we  say — an  evening 
spent  in  the  society  of  those  beautifully-dressed, 
admirably- graceful  ladies  and  gentlemen,  in  that 
Lyceum-land  where,  as  in  the  Isle  of  the  Lotos- 
eaters,  it  is  "always  afternoon,"  is  perfect.  When 
we  leave  we  have  indeed  "been  to  the  play"  — 
not  merely  looked  on  at  a  performance,  but  been 
there  —  to  the  home  of  chivalry,  romance,  ease, 
and  wealth,  where  nothing  sordid  can  ever  enter, 
though  malice  and  all  uncharitableness  creep  in 
to  make  it  human  and  to  stir  those  softer  emo- 
tions without  which  Paradise  itself  would  not  be 
perfect.  The  secret  of  the  charm  is  revealed  by 
G.  A.  S.  "  Although  Benedick  and  Beatrice  are 
only  the  hero  and  heroine  of  an  under-plot  they 
are  undoubtedly  the  personages  in  the  comedy  in 
whom  the  interest  of  the  spectators  is  concen- 
trated" because  (ive  say  because)  "they  have 
nothing  to  do  with  the  delectable  conspiracy  of 
Don  John." 


MUCH    ADO    ABOUT   NOTHING — I  882.      I  39 

He  adds,  in  speaking  of  the  misc-cn-schie: 
"  one  recognizes  everywhere  traces  of  the  master- 
mind of  the  earnest  student  and  accompHshed 
artist,  whose  rise  to  the  very  highest  in  his  useful 
and  ennobling  profession  is  only  another  proof  of 
the  wisdom  of  the  maxim  that  'Genius  is  a  great 
power  of  taking  pains.' 

"  Elliston  and  Lewis  were  famous  Benedicks, 
but  very  dissimilar  it  would  seem.  It  strikes  me 
that  the  Benedick  of  Mr.  Henry  Irving  is  a  happy 
combination  of  the  characteristics  of  the  two ; 
only,  as  they  were  both  in  their  graves  before  he 
was  born,  it  is  clear  that  the  merit  of  the  presen- 
tation of  a  Benedick  at  once  earnest  and  airy, 
gallant  and  resolute,  frank  and  careless,  humorous 
and  grave,  belongs  to  Mr.  Henry  Irving  alone. 
The  Beatrice  of  Miss  Ellen  Terry  is  an  entirely 
fascinating  and  lovable  performance." 

"  In  the  part  of  Benedick,"  says  the  Daily 
Nezvs,  "  it  must  be  confessed  the  chances  were  less 
strong  against  Irving  than  in  Romeo,  or  Doricourt, 
or  Claude  Melnotte.  There  is  a  more  manly  fibre 
about  him,  together  with  a  far  more  subtle  com- 
bination of  personal  qualities  than  can  be  asso- 
ciated in  the  mind  with  the  wayward,  impulsive, 
boyish  Romeo.  Still,  there  can  be  no  question 
that  the  part  makes  much  higher  demands  upon 


140  HENRY    IRVING. 

the  powers  of  an  actor  than  that  of  the  lovesick 
Montague,  and  it  is  Hkely  to  be  an  additional  re- 
commendation in  the  eyes  of  a  great  and  am- 
bitious performer  that  it  affords  a  better  hope  of 
originality  in  the  interpretation.  The  extremes  of 
the  conceptions  hitherto  shown  on  the  stage  were 
the  dashing  coxcomb  portrayed,  as  tradition  tells 
us,  by  the  restless  Lewis,  and  the  rather  moody, 
saturnine  reflective  creature  depicted  by  Macready. 
Mr.  Irving's  Benedick  is,  from  the  first,  the  manly 
friend,  the  gallant  soldier,  the  courteous  gentle- 
man —  to  all  save  Beatrice  who  provokes  him  to 
wordy  combats.  We  do  not  remember  any  repre- 
sentative of  the  character  who  so  subtly  engenders 
a  suspicion  that  the  love  which  breaks  out  so  sud- 
denly when  the  trick  is  played  upon  him  of  lead- 
ing him  into  the  belief  that  the  lady  is  secretly 
pining  for  him,  was,  after  all,  only  the  bursting  forth 
of  a  flame  that  has  long  been  smouldering.  This, 
it  is  true,  must  be  found  by  the  spectator  for  him- 
self. Nowhere  throughout  the  play  however  did 
the  performance  reach  so  high  a  level  as  in  the 
powerfully  dramatic  colloquy  in  the  scene  between 
Benedick  and  Beatrice  in  the  church.  Miss  Terry 
swiftly  passes  through  the  whole  gamut  of 
Beatrice's  deep  3^et  wayward — froHcsome  yet  ear- 
nestly tender  nature." 


MUCH    ADO    ABOUT   NOTHING — 1882.      I4I 

^*  Mtich  Ado  About  Nothing  must  be  pro- 
nounced the  most  successful  of  Mr.  Irving's 
Shakespearian  revivals,"  says  the  Athenaeum, 
"  and  Benedick  is  probably  the  best  Shakespearian 
performance  Mr.  Irving  has  as  yet  supplied.  In 
eccentric  comedy  he  has  few  equals.  No  actor  of 
whom  the  present  generation  has  any  knowledge 
or  preserves  any  recollection  can  claim  to  have  so 
thoroughly  entered  into  the  character  or  charged 
it  with  equal  vitality  *  *  *  it  has  much  fancy  and 
variety  and  attains  distinct  intellectual  elevation. 
Miss  Terry's  Beatrice,  in  the  stronger  scenes 
reached  a  high  point  of  excellence.  *  *  Few 
Benedicks  could  be  found  to  resist  such  conjura- 
tion as  was  supplied."  "  Mr.  Irving  was  made  for 
Benedick,"  says  the  Academy,  "  or  Benedick  for 
Mr.  Irving.  He  plays  it  with  the  keenest  sense  of 
enjoyment  and  appreciation,  and  with  that  author- 
ity of  interpretation  which  comes  most  readily 
when  a  man  possesses  the  agreeable  conscious- 
ness that  the  authority  will  be  recognized  and  ac- 
cepted. The  element  of  satire  in  the  part  —  the 
conception  of  a  robust  humanity  boasting  its  own 
strength  and  swayed,  even  while  it  boasts,  by  the 
lightest  of  feminine  charms  —  is  much  in  his  own 
humor.  The  chivalry  of  the  character  suits  him, 
and  so  does  the  graciousness  of  the  character,  and 


142  HENRY    IRVING. 

its  quiet  and  self-analytical  wit.  He  is  excellent 
in  speech,  and  as  excellent  in  by-play.  It  is  sel- 
dom that  a  success  is  so  unmistakable,  though,  in 
this  case  we  cannot  consider  it  surprising.  The 
character  fits  him,  as  Beatrice  fits  Miss  Ellen  Terry. 
Nearly  all  that  she  can  do  quite  perfectly  she  can 
do  in  Beatrice ;  of  all  her  best  notes  only  one  is 
missing  and  that  is  the  note  of  extreme  pathos. 
So  it  is  that  Mr.  Irving  and  Miss  Terry  fit  their 
parts  perfectly."  (Academy). 

We  ourselves,  let  us  add,  rate  Miss  Terry's 
Beatrice  higher  than  her  partner's  Benedick. 
There  was  indeed  no  lack  of  grace  and  humor  in 
his  performance  but  the  grace  lacked  finish  —  at 
first  at  any  rate,  it  has  perhaps  improved  by  prac- 
tice —  and  the  humor  was  in  consequence  a  little 
clumsy.  In  the  garden  scene  we  felt  a  touch  of 
the  school-boy  —  a  digging  in  the  ribs  of  the 
audience  —  that  was  certainly  below  the  usual 
mark  of  Mr.  Irving's  tact.  But  we  saw  it  while  it 
was  yet  new  to  the  Lyceum  stage  and  Mr.  Irving 
has  the  magnanimous  grace  of  never  being  too 
proud  to  improve. 

In  Dramatic  Notes,  by  Austin  Brereton,  a  very 
good  account  of  the  play  and  the  gorgeous  set 
scenes  ends  with  an  appreciative  comment  on  the 
sound  judgment  which  Mr.  Irving  has  once  more 


REVIVALS  —  1883.  143 

shown  in  giving  the  real  story  of  the  play — the  slan- 
der of  Hero  —  due  prominence.  Irving  and  Miss 
Terry  can  afford  to  do  this ;  still,  the  sacrifice  on 
his  part  is  less  than  in  The  Merchant  of  Venice 
where  Shvlock  slinks  off  humiliated  and  leaves 
Portia  to  celebrate  her  triumphs  at  Belmont ;  or, 
in  other  words,  leaves  Miss  Terry  in  possession  of 
the  stage.  This  is  as  it  should  be  ;  it  is  conscien- 
tious art  and  the  very  best  taste. 

In  short  Much  Ado  About  Nothing  is  an  al- 
most ideal  performance,  as  it  is  an  ideal  play ; 
to  live  through  it  is  an  experience  that  ele- 
vates the  imagination  and  leaves  a  remembrance 
in  the  mind  which  is  as  delightful  as  itself —  even 
though  the  critical  faculty  may  refuse  to  be  alto- 
gether silenced. 

It  might  have  held  the  stage  till  the  scenery 
was  a  ruin  and  the  dresses  rags,  but  it  was  taken  off 
early  this  spring  in  order  that  the  company  might 
once  more  go  through  a  series  of  performances  of 
the  nine  other  plays  that  Mr.  Irving  is  bringing 
bodily  to  America.  "  Bringing"  very  hterally,  for 
the  scenery  and  properties  constitute  some  tons' 
weight  of  bales  and  cases,  and  the  dresses  alone 
fill  a  considerable  amount  of  luggage.  The  first 
of  the  old  pieces  thus  rehearsed,  as  we  ma)-  say, 
for  the  American  audiences,  was  Tlic  Lyon's  Mail, 


144  HENRY    IRVING. 

and  the  revival  was  particularly  successful.  Miss 
Terry,  with  the  frank  generosity  of  a  true  artist, 
plays  the  small  part  of  Jeannette.  *•  Its  success 
was  almost  phenomenal;  West-End  play-goers, 
who  commonly  scorn  the  melodrama,  crowd  the 
stalls ;  and  yet  we  cannot  but  feel  that  such  char- 
acters are  unworthy  of  Mr.  Irving's  talents  when 
we  think  of  him  as  almost,  if  not  quite,  the  sole 
competent  representative  of  the  '  legitimate ' 
muse."  Melodrama  however  is  a  fact;  on  the 
stage  a  great  fact  and  not  without  a  place  in  litera- 
ture. "  It  is  a  form  of  stage  work  into  which,  if 
genuine  artists  engage  in  it,  art  may  largely  enter," 
and  Irving's  performance  in  The  Lyon's  Mail, 
"  invests  its  somewhat  obvious  contrivances  for  har- 
rowing and  surprising  the  spectator,  with  a  dignity 
that  is  not  strictly  their  own." 

Mr.  Irving's  benefit  and  leave-taking  of  the 
London  public  took  place  on  the  28th  of  July.  It 
is  the  end  of  history,  so  far  as  he  is  concerned  for 
the  present.  But  some  weeks  previously  a  party  of 
his  friends  and  admirers  had  given  him  a  dinner, 
and  the  American  Minister  in  London  so  far 
honored  him  as  to  postpone  his  customary  enter- 
tainment in  honor  of  the  day  —  it  was  the  Fourth 
of  July  —  in  order  to  be  present.  Mr.  Irving's 
health  was  proposed  by  the  Lord  Chief  Justice  in 


DINNER — JULY,    1883.  I45 

a  long  speech,  in  which  he  did  equal  justice  to 
their  guest's  qualities  as  an  artist  and  to  his  per- 
sonal merits,  his  generosity,  liberality,  and  unsel- 
fishness in  those  business  relations  which  fill  up 
the  larger  part  of  a  manager's  life.  Mr.  Irving,  in 
returning  thanks,  spoke  with  eager  anticipation  of 
his  visit  to  America;  "I  am  not  going  among 
strangers,"  he  said,  "I  am  going  among  friends;" 
and  in  expressing  in  feeling  terms  his  sense  of  the 
honor  done  him,  he  added  the  thanks  of  his  coad- 
jutor Miss  Terry,  who  was  sitting  in  the  gallery 
surrounded  by  relations  and  friends,  and  to  whom 
the  chairman  had  alluded  in  his  speech. 

For  his  last  appearance  and  benefit  on  the  28th 
of  July,  Mr.  Irving  secured  the  assistance  of  hisfaith- 
ful  friend  Mr.  Toole  and  of  Mr.  Sims  Reeves  who, 
after  the  "Death  of  Nelson,"  sang,  "You'll  Remem- 
ber Me."  He  himself  appeared  as  Eugene  Aram 
and  as  Doricourt.  It  was  "  with  sincere  emotion," 
as  we  can  well  believe,  that  he  took  leave  of  an 
audience  many  of  whom  were  his  personal  friends 
and  all,  probably  without  an  exception,  his  hearty 
admirers  and  well-wishers.  He  spoke,  in  some- 
what tremulous  accents  we  are  told,  as  follows : 

"Ladies  and  gentlemen — I  have  often  had  to  say 
'  Good-bye '  to  you  on  occasions  like  this,  but  never  has 


146  HENRY    IRVING. 

the  task  been  so  difficult  as  it  is  to-night,  for  we  are  about 
to  have  a  longer  separation  than  we  have  ever  had  before. 
Soon  an  ocean  will  roll  between  us,  and  it  will  be  a  long, 
long  time  before  we  can  hear  your  heart-stirring  cheers 
again.  It  is  some  consolation,  though,  to  think  that  we 
shall  carry  with  us  across  the  Atlantic  the  good-will  of 
many  friends  who  are  here  to-night,  as  well  as  of  many 
who  are  absent.  Here — in  this  theatre  —  have  we 
watched  the  growth  of  your  great  and  generous  sympa- 
thy with  our  work,  which  has  been  more  than  rewarded 
by  the  abundance  of  your  regard,  and  you  will  believe 
me  when  I  say  I  acutely  feel  this  parting  with  those  who 
have  so  steadily  and  staunchly  sustained  me  in  my 
career.  Not  for  myself  alone  I  speak,  but  on  behalf  of 
my  comrades,  and  especially  for  Miss  Ellen  Terry. 
Her  regret  at  parting  with  you  is  equal  to  mine.  You 
will,  I  am  sure,  miss  her  —  as  she  will  certainly  miss 
you.  But  we  have  our  return  to  look  forward  to,  and 
it  will  be  a  great  pride  to  us  to  come  back  with  the 
stamp  of  the  favor  and  the  good-will  of  the  American 
people,  which,  believe  me,  we  shall  not  fail  to  obtain. 
The  2d  of  next  June  will  I  hope  see  us  home  with  you 
again.  We  shall  have  acted  in  America  for  six  months, 
from  October  29th,  to  the  29th  of  the  following  April, 
during  which  time  we  shall  have  played  in  some  forty 
cities.  Before  our  departure  we  shall  appear  in  Glasgow, 
Edinburgh,  and  Liverpool,  from  whence  we  start  upon 
our  expedition.  This  theatre  will  not  be  closed  long ; 
for  on  the  ist  of  September  a  lady  will  appear  before  you 
whose  beauty  and  talent  have  made  her  the   favorite  of 


LAST    APPEARANCE — 1883.  I47 

America  from  Maine  to  California  —  Miss  Mary  Ander- 
son, a  lady  to  whom  I  am  sure  you  will  give  the  hearti- 
est English  welcome.  That  is  a  foregone  conclusion. 
You  Avill,  I  know,  extend  the  same  welcome  to  my 
friend  Lawrence  Barrett,  the  famous  American  actor, 
who  will  appear  here  in  the  early  part  of  next  year.  It 
is  a  delight  to  me,  as  it  must  have  been  to  you,  to  have 
had  my  friend  Sims  Reeves  here  to-night,  and  I  hope 
that  the  echo  of  the  words  so  beautifully  sung  by  him 
will  linger  in  your  memories,  and  that  you  Avill  remem- 
ber me ;  and  it  has  also  been  a  great  delight  to  have 
had  my  old  friend  Toole  and  my  young  friend  Herbert 
Reeves  here  to-night.  At  all  times  it  is  a  happy  thing 
to  be  surrounded  by  friends,  and  especially  on  such  an 
occasion  as  this.  And  now,  ladies  and  gentlemen,  I 
must  say  '  Good-bye.'  I  can  but  hope  that  in  our  ab- 
sence some  of  you  will  miss  us  ;  and  I  hope  that  when 
we  return  you  will  all  be  here,  or  some  few  of  you  at 
least,  to  welcome  us  back.  From  one  and  all,  to  one 
and  all,  with  full  and  grateful  and  hopeful  hearts,  I  wish 
you  lovingly  and  respectfully,  '  Good-bye.'" 

"  Good-bye !"  was  echoed,  in  the  fullest  and 
deepest  sense  of  the  little  word,  by  his  English 
audience.  It  is  our  good  fortune  to  be  able  instead 
to  say : 

"Welcome!" 


148  HENRY    IRVING. 


CHAPTER  IV. 
MR.  irving's  individuality  and  influence. 

HIS     SPEECHES    AND    WRITINGS. 
HIS   SOCIAL   QUALITIES. 

A  NOTICE  of  Henry  Irving  would  be  incom- 
plete without  some  account  of  his  personal  ap- 
pearance, though  it  no  doubt  is  familiar  to  some 
who  will  read  these  pages,  and  ere  long  those 
who  have  not  yet  seen  him  will  seize  the  oppor- 
tunity now  offered  them  on  this  side  of  the 
Atlantic.  He  has  of  course  been  repeatedly  photo- 
graphed in  his  own  country  and  it  is  to  be  hoped 
that  he  will  afford  our  own  admirable  artists  many 
opportunities  of  recording  his  appearance  in  the 
parts  he  plays  here.  At  the  same  time  the  most 
pleasing  presentment  of  his  features  is  in  a  part  in 
which  we  shall  not  see  him  in  America :  that  of 
Vanderdecken.  This  is,  we  think,  the  most  artistic 
likeness  we  have  ever  seen  of  him ;  the  make-up, 
which  is  in  no  respect  a  disguise — no  disguise  can 
mask  Henry  Irving  —  brings  out  the  best  features 
of  his  face,  and  the  broad  hat  conceals  his  most 


HENRY   IRVING   AS    " VANDERDECKEN. 


HIS    FEATURES.  1 49 

conspicuous  defect :  his  flat  and  by  no  means  well- 
shaped  head.  The  singularity  of  its  form  startles 
us,  so  to  speak,  out  of  realizing  that  it  is  ugly ; 
but  when  the  furry  hat  worn  by  Vanderdecken 
disguises  the  disproportion  of  the  head  and  face 
we  feel  at  once  what  the  defect  is  that  we  miss.  In 
point  of  fact  it  is  hard  to  pronounce  Irving  a 
liandsovie  man,  though  his  face  is  so  finely  and 
powerfully  moulded  that  it  is  far  from  being  plain 
and  still  further  from  being  commonplace.  The 
features,  without  being  bony,  suggest  a  solid  frame- 
work under  the  flesh,  of  a  somewhat  animal  type : 
a  broad  jaw,  a  low  skull  and  the  eyes  set  close  un- 
der the  brows.  On  the  other  hand  the  facial  an- 
gle is  noble  in  profile  and  the  temples  wide.  The 
muscles  that  clothe  the  bones  are  fine  and  mobile ; 
the  eyes  not  large  but  expressive ;  the  lips  thin, 
firm,  and  remarkably  free  from  sensuousness ;  the 
ears  not  too  small,  but  set  rather  too  low  on  the 
head. 

One  grace  Mr.  Irving  has  that  is  almost  match- 
less —  certainly  unmatched  on  the  English  stage — 
hands  of  extraordinary  beauty ;  not  finikin,  fem- 
inine hands,  -but  such  as  might  be  regarded  as  the 
typical  model  of  what  the  Creator  meant  the 
hand  of  man  to  be.  Whether  he  lightly  caresses 
Ophelia's  hair  or  grips  lago's  throat,  fondly  counts 


150  HENRY    IRVING. 

his  gold  as  Mathias,  or  clutches  his  chair  in  The 
Iron  Chest,  lifts  them  in  tremulous  anguish  or  gal- 
lantly waves  them  in  a  minuet  —  their  admirable 
form,  play  and  grip  are  an  accessory  of  singular 
value  and  would  give  him  distinction  and  ele- 
gance, even  if  he  had  no  greater  qualities.  He 
dresses  his  hands,  it  may  be  added,  with  no  less 
care  than  his  face  or  figure ;  the  lace  he  wears  in 
Charles  I.  lends  them  the  sentimental  refinement 
of  a  Vandyke  painting,  while  in  Louis  XI.  he  half 
covers  them  in  a  clumsy  cuff  that  gives  them  the 
pinched  bloodless  character  of  a  sordid  old  man's 
hands. 

There  are  moments,  however,  when  the  beauty 
of  his  expression  entirely  glorifies  his  face  —  mo- 
ments in  Hamlet,  in  Charles  I.,  in  Richelieu ;  but 
the  slightly  satirical  humor  which  lifts  a  corner  of 
his  mouth,  and  sometimes  gives  his  very  polish  of 
manner  an  accent  of  cynicism,  would  seem  to  be 
the  natural  expression  of  his  mind  —  as  it  is  with 
many  men  who  have  analyzed  human  nature,  and 
perforce  tasted  the  bitterest  depths  of  their  own. 

This  is  an  experience  without  which  no  man 
can  become  such  an  artist  as  Irving  'undoubtedly 
is  —  though  a  man  may  go  through  it  too,  with- 
out becoming  an  artist.  Nothing  but  a  sincere 
study  of  human  motive  and  its  manifold  outcome 


HIS    EXPRESSION.  I5I 

can  afford  the  materials  for  such  a  synthesis  as  is 
necessary  for  the  conception  of  the  characters  of 
Othello,  Shylock,  Eugene  Aram,  lago,  or  even 
Benedick.  In  every  part  he  plays,  whatever  Mr. 
Irving  may  do  to  jar  on  our  preconceptions,  he 
always  has  the  power  which  comes  of  zvholeness, 
so  far  as  his  own  part  is  concerned  ;  we  feel,  Avhen 
we  have  seen  him  act,  not  so  much  that  we  like  or 
dislike  him,  as  that  we  agree  or  disagree  with  the 
scheme  of  character  he  has  constructed  out  of  the 
materials  in  his  hands. 

He  makes  up  with  admirable  care  and  skill. 
Merely  to  see  Mr.  Irving's  make-up  in  every  part 
he  plays  is  enough  to  show  how  conscientious 
his  study  must  be.  M.  Jules  Claretie  found  him 
dressing  for  Richelieu  with  three  or  four  photo- 
graphs and  prints  of  portraits  of  the  Cardinal ; 
and  for  Louis  XI.  he  studied  history  and  romance 
alike  with  the  greatest  care.  In  1877,  when  he  was 
preparing  to  produce  The  Lyon's  Mail  we  are  told 
that  he  went  to  the  Derby,  as  much  to  study  the 
aspect  of  rascals  of  the  Dubosc  type  as  to  see  the 
race ;  while  he  adopted  for  Vanderdecken  a  sort 
of  Rembrandt  costume  and  in  Charles  I.  looked 
like  a  Vandyke  come  to  life.  And  yet,  in  one 
sense,  Mr.  Irving  is  not  what  play-goers  of  the  old 
school,  at  any  rate,  could   call   a  great   actor :   he 


152  HENRY    IRVING. 

never  succeeds  in  disguising  himself  for  an  instant. 
He  dresses  Irving  for  a  part  and  Irving  is  before 
you  with  an  individuahty  far  too  powerful  to 
be  masked.  Herein,  it  must  be  said  lie 
a  source  of  strength  and  a  source  of  weak- 
ness, and  while  pointing  out  the  first,  it  is 
not  unfair  to  insist  on  the  second.  It  is  a  source 
of  strength  inasmuch  as  it  is  the  secret  of  the 
charm  by  which  he  holds  his  audience ;  of  weak- 
ness inasmuch  as  it  is  a  shortcoming  in  art.  Ir- 
ving plays  entirely  and  solely  to  the  audience ; 
this,  at  any  rate,  is  his  rule,  though  some  excep- 
tions will  be  mentioned.  This,  let  us  say  it  at  once, 
is  a  flaw  in  his  art  qua  art,  and  there  are  very  few 
actors  with  whom  such  a  scheme  of  work  would 
succeed  ;  it  is  a  system  similar  in  kind,  though  ut- 
terly dissimilar  in  style  and  degree,  to  that  which 
was  used  with  such  skill  and  success  by  Ravel  (in 
the  Rtie  dc  la  Lune  for  instance)  and  by  other 
French  actors  in  farce  and  low  comedy  on  the 
boards  of  the  Palais  Royal  theatre  in  Paris ;  and 
Mr.  Irving's  masterful  and  captivating  individual- 
ity has  enabled  him  to  transfer  it  to  his  own  far 
higher  sphere  of  work,  to  refine  and  elevate  it,  till 
the  influence  he  exerts  has  the  force  of  a  spell. 
But  the  consequence  might  have  been  predicted 
by  any  one  who  could  have  forseen  the  channel 


HIS    METHOD.  153 

into  which  his  peculiar  talent  was  destined  to  flow. 
Only  too  often  does  Mr.  Irving  act  his  part  while 
he  does  not  act  the  play.  He  thrills,  or  touches 
or  terrifies  the  spectator  by  means  which  we  know, 
on  reflection,  could  not  produce  the  effects  they 
are  supposed  to  have  had  on  the  other  personages 
in  the  story.  To  this  we  owe  those  grotesque 
mannerisms  which  deface  some  of  his  finest 
work,  those  descents  of  tone  —  not  of  voice  alone 
but  of  sentiment,  not  merely  of  gesture  but  of  im- 
pulse—  which  would  shock  the  public,  and  do 
shock  some  old-fashioned  spectators,  if  it  were  not 
for  the  mysterious  impression  they  produce  of  self- 
revelation  in  the  actor.  Instances  might  be  given 
from  Richelieu  (at  the  end  of  act  IV.),  from  The 
Merchant  of  Venice  (Act  III.,  Scene  4,  Irving's 
acting  edition),  and  from  his  lago  (Act  I.  of 
Othello). 

"  Mr.  Irving's  performance  of  the  hero  presents 
many  artistic  qualities,  marred,  however,  by  excess 
of  eftbrt  and  elaboration  and  by  too  manifest  a 
consciousness  of  the  presence  of  the  audience." 
So  wrote  Mr.  Button  Cook  when  speaking  of 
Philip  and  there  is  still  truth  in  the  criticism. 

Irrespective  of  the  want  of  appreciation  of  his 
stage,  as  a  world  in  itself,  which  is  betrayed  by 
this  indifference  to  the  logical  results  of  his  per- 


154  HENRY    IRVING. 

sonality  on  the  development  of  the  action,  the 
constant  recurrence  of  the  same  forms  of.  bathos 
(quite  independently  of  peculiarities  of  walk  and 
accent)  would  suffice  to  stamp  the  man  Irving- 
whatever  dress  he  might  wear;  and  it  is  this 
never-escaped -from  identity  that  makes  the  ques- 
tion of  a  part  "  suiting  him"  a  prominent  and  im- 
portant one.  This  is  not  for  a  moment  meant  to 
convey  the  idea  that  Irving  cannot  act.  Nothing- 
could  be  more  utterly  false.  No  actor  on  the 
English  stage  assumes  a  part  more  admirably. 
When  he  plays  Richelieu  or  Louis  XL  we  feel 
that  Irving,  as  we  see  the  man,  might  very  fitly 
have  been  a  cardinal  or  a  king;  while  in  The  Bells 
and  Richard  III.  we  see  no  reason  to  doubt  that 
he  might  have  been  the  villain  he  represents. 

"  Mr.  Irving  presents  a  most  conscientious, 
artistic,  and  elaborate  study  of  the  character," 
says  Mr.  Button  Cook,  in  1878,  of  Lonis  XL 
"  He  is  more  senile  perhaps  than  other  represen- 
tatives of  Louis  have  been  ;  the  quavering  note  of 
age  and  decrepitude  is  heard  even  in  his  strongest 
and  boldest  utterances ;  the  hand  of  death  seems 
to  oppress  him  even  from  his  first  entrance.  But 
Mr.  Irving  is  true  to  his  own  conception  of  his 
part,  and  allowing  for  a  trifling  excess  of  accent 
now  and  then,  when   it   is   deemed    expedient  to 


HIS    METHOD.  I  55 

insist  on  some  special  point,  his  performance  is 
throughout  v^ery  masterly,  even  and  consistent, 
subtle  and  finished.  There  is  no  neglect  of  the 
small  delicate  touches  which  give  completeness  to 
a  picture,  while  the  stronger  portions  of  the  de- 
sign are  executed  with  supreme  breadth  and  bold- 
ness. Mr.  Irving  boasts  the  great  actor's  gift,  or 
art,  of  at  once  riveting  the  attention  of  his  audi- 
ence ;  presently  his  influence  extends  more  and 
more,  till  each  word,  and  glance,  and  action  of 
this  strange  king  he  represents  —  so  grotesque  of 
aspect,  so  cat-like  of  movement,  so  ape-like  of 
gesture,  so  venomous  in  his  spite,  so  demoniac  in 
his  rage,  and  meanwhile  so  paltry  and  vile  and 
cringing  a  poltroon  — are  watched  and  followed 
with  a  nervous  absorption  that  has  something 
about  it  of  fascination  or  even  of  terror.  The  per- 
formance reaches  its  climax  perhaps  in  the  king's 
paroxysms  of  fear  after  Nemours'  assault  upon 
him ;  the  actor's  passionate  rendering  of  this 
scene,  his  panic-stricken  cries  and  moans,  prayers, 
threats,  and  the  spectacle  of  physical  prostration 
that  ensues,  affect  the  audience  very  powerfully. 
The  death  of  the  king  is  elaborately  treated,  but 
with  no  undue  straining  after  the  horrible.  In 
these  distinct  and  individual  impersonations  Mr. 
Irving  is  seen  to  signal  advantage  and  can  afford 


156  HENRY    IRVING. 

comparison  with  the  best  artists  of  his  class. 
There  is  probably  no  actor  now  living  who  could 
present  such  an  interpretation  of  Louis  XL  as 
Mr.  Irving  offers  us." 

When  we  try  to  discuss  the  vexed  —  and,  it 
must  be  honestly  said,  vexing — question  of  Mr. 
Irving's  mannerisms,  judgment  and  justice  give  us 
pause.  That  they  exist  is  only  too  obvious  and 
certain ;  that  they  repel  many  who  see  him  for 
the  first  time  so  completely  as  to  defeat  his  charm 
is  indisputable ;  and  his  sincerest  admirers  will 
perhaps  to  their  dying  day,  and  in  their  moments 
of  tenderest  remembrance  —  for  we  all  think  ten- 
derly of  our  past  enjoyments — wish  that  he  had 
been  free  from  them.  Still  we  must  remember 
that  the  great  men  who  are  gone  are  said  to  have 
been  just  as  much  to  blame  in  this  respect.  Bet- 
terton's  gestures  were  stiff  and  limited ;  Garrick's 
foes  could  give  a  very  satirical  caricature  of  the 
action  and  accent  that  enthralled  his  admirers; 
Edmund  Kean  even  was  not  perfectly  free  and 
natural  till  fire  and  passion  lifted  him  above  him- 
self No  passion  ever  did  this  with  his  son  and 
Macready  is  said  to  have  been  even  colder,  drier, 
and  narrower.  However,  to  use  a  homely  proverb, 
"two  blacks  do  not  make  white;"  mannerism  may 
be  defined  as  the  indulgence,  or  perhaps  the  cul- 


MANNERISMS.  ,  157 

tivation  of  a  peculiarity  which,  being  characteristic 
of  the  actor,  cannot  by  any  possibihty  be  equally 
characteristic  of  every  man  he  feigns  to  be ;  and 
such  mannerism  is,  beyond  a  doubt,  a  fault,  a  blot, 
and  a  disfigurement.  Such  eccentricities  of  detail 
it  must  be  owned,  with  the  deepest  regret,  have 
always  been  Mr.  Irving's  rock  ahead.  It  is  an 
ungracious  task  to  point  out  the  defects  of  an 
actor  who  has  given  us  so  much  and  such  exalted 
pleasure  ;  whose  ideal  of  art,  as  we  know,  is  so 
high ;  whose  insight  is  so  keen  and  whose  powers 
of  expression  are  so  great.  Small  blame  is  it 
indeed  to  any  artist  that  he  should  fall  short  of 
his  aim  when  that  aim  is  the  highest ;  but  the 
truth  is  that  Mr.  Irving  has  in  some  degree 
allowed  himself  to  be  spoilt.  His  critics  from  his 
earliest  days,  as  we  have  seen,  have  warned  him 
while  they  have  praised  him  ;  meanwhile  special 
circumstances  have  given  him  extraordinary  popu- 
larity, and  it  is  not  perhaps  strange  that  he  has 
been  only  too  ready  to  overlook  in  himself  the 
faults  tliat  his  public  have  condoned.  Neverthe- 
less it  is_a^fact  that  Henry  Irving's  English  is  not 
the  tongue  universally  spoken  in  England,  still 
less  in  America ;  that  a  stride  complicated  with  a 
drag,  which  may  be  thought  picturesque  in  Ham- 
let and  characteristic  in  Richelieu,  is  grotesque  in 


158  HENRY    IRVING. 

Charles  I.  and  intolerable  in  Romeo;  and  that 
certain  airs  of  supreme  ease  which  are  perfectly 
fitting  in  melodrama  or  comedy  are  ill-advised,  to 
say  the  least,  in  even  the  comedy  parts  of  a 
tragedy  —  for  instance,  when  lago  sits  on  a  table 
and  picks  his  teeth  with  his  dagger. 

The  Athenaeum  of  October  2nd,  1875,  has 
some  remarks  on  Mr.  Irving  in  Macbeth  which 
unfortunately  apply  though  with  much  qualifica- 
tion to  almost  all  his  parts ;  still  the  faults  pointed 
out  were  no  doubt  most  conspicuous  in  Macbeth 
(which  the  present  writer  has  never  seen). 

"  Mr  Irvincr  must  learn  that  his  mannerisms 
have  developed  into  evils  so  formidable  that  they 
will,  if  not  checked,  end  by  ruining  his  career. 
His  slow  pronunciation  and  his  indescribable  elon- 
gation of  syllables  bring  the  whole  occasionally 
near  burlesque.  *  *  *  Mr.  Irving  has  youth, 
intelligence,  ambition,  zeal,  and  resolution.  These 
things  are  sacrificed  to  vices  of  style  which  have 
strengthened  with  the  actor's  successes,  and  like 
all  weeds  of  ill  growth,  have  obtained  successive 
development.  It  is  impossible  to  preserve  the 
music  of  Shakespeare  if  words  of  one  syllable  are 
to  be  stretched  out  to  the  length  of  five  or  six." 
In  1878,  again  "Mr.  Irving's  faults  of  elocution 
are — or  rather  were,  for  they  are  growing  less — 


MANNERISMS — 1878.  159 

summed  up  in  an  eccentric  habit  of  selecting  for 
special  emphasis  some  syllables  and  words  possess- 
ing no  perceptible  claim  to  any  such  distinction, 
and  of  giving  to  such  syllables  and  words  a  degree 
of  quantity,  as  distinguished  from  mere  accent, 
altogether  unknown  to  any  system  of  prosody," 
and  even  in  1880,  "Mr.  Irving  still  delights  in 
abrupt  transitions  from  a  slow  and  somewhat  arti- 
ficial delivery  to  almost  startling  by  familiar  con- 
versational tones  which,  apart  from  the  obvious 
shallowness  of  acts  of  this  kind,  are  apt  to  grate 
on  the  ear  as  something  incongruous  in  plays  full 
of  poetical  beauty  and  subtlety  of  thought."  {Daily 
Neivs). 

An  acute  and  thoughtful  critic  of  "  The 
English  Stage"  in  Scribner  s  Magazine  Qdin.  1881) 
observes,  with  some  little  exaggeration  of  the 
truth  :  "  Mr.  Irving's  peculiarities  and  eccentrici- 
ties of  speech  are  so  strange  *  *  *  that  the 
spectator  who  desires  to  be  in  sympathy  with  him 
finds  himself  confronted  with  a  bristling  hedge  of 
difficulties;"  and  though  we  cannot  subscribe  to 
all  this  writer's  opinions,  we  entirely  agree  when 
he  says  that  "  in  Louis  XL  his  defects  (that  is  to 
say  his  mannerisms)  to  a  certain  degree  stand  him 
in  stead  of  qualities." 

The  very  converse  of  this  was  true  in  Vander- 


l6o  HENRY    IRVING. 

decken  —  in  which  Mr.  Irving  owned  that  he  feh 
that  his  pubHc  were  not  "  with  him."  One  of  the 
chief  reasons  of  Its  failure  was  the  ghastly — meant 
to  be  ghostly  —  monotony  and  exaggeration  of 
manner  which  Mr.  Irving  infused  into  it.  Theo- 
retically he  was  right  —  theoretically,  be  it  said,  he 
hardly  ever  fails  to  be  right  —  for  what  character 
can  be  attributed  to  a  wandering  and  God-forsaken 
spirit  but  that  of  the  very  demon  of  melancholy ; 
but  such  a  part  is  not  Irving's  forte  and  he  failed 
to  make  mannered  melancholy  an  interesting  psy- 
chological study,  though  he  made  the  spectral 
captain  an  astonishingly  picturesque  personage. 

Shylock  throughout  is  less  defaced  by  man- 
nerisms than  many  of  his  parts ;  partly,  no  doubt 
because  the  assumption  of  the  character  necessi- 
tates a  strong  individualization :  in  the  trial  scene 
Irving  again  seems  to  be  under  the  dominion  of 
passion  too  completely  to  be  thinking  of  his  audi- 
ence and  his  acting  is  magnificent.  Revenge,  in- 
herited revenge  for  centuries  of  insult  and 
oppression,  fires  his  eye  and  whets  his  knife,  and 
lurks  under  his  scowling  brow  as  he  quits  the 
scene,  leaving  love  and  youth  triumphant. 

Elaborate  bitsiness  may  not  be  the  highest,  but 
it  is  one  of  the  most  fascinating  parts  of  the 
actor's  art ;  and,  given  a  broad  grasp  of  the  play 


HIS    STAGE    BUSINESS.  l6l 

first  and  then  of  the  character  to  be  represented, 
it  has  quite  as  good  a  right  to  be  considered  next 
in  importance  as  a  good  make-up  or  appropriate 
costume.  In  Irving's  acting  it  sometimes  perhaps 
holds  a  too  prominent  place,  but  many  instances 
might  be  quoted  where  it  supplements  the  general 
conception  and  illustrates  the  situation. 

In  the  second  act  of  Richard  III.,  Irving  has 
one  of  those  delicately  humorous  bits  of  business 
which  captivate  the  attention  of  his  audience  so 
completely  that  criticism  —  whether  praise  or 
blame  —  is  lost  in  sympathy.  When  the  Duke  of 
Gloster  comes  into  the  room  in  the  palace  where 
the  Duchess  of  York,  and  Queen  Elizabeth  are 
bewailing  their  griefs,  he  says  to  his  mother : 

"  Humbly  on  my  knee 
I  crave  your  blessing." 

and  Irving,  with  a  refinement  of  mockery,  lightly 
spreads  his  handkerchief  on  the  ground  at  her  feet 
before  kneeling  to  her.  This  little  touch  is  thrown 
in  with  such  finish  that  it  is  not  till  he  rises  again 
with  the  ironical  aside  that  follows  that  its  ribald 
insolence  is  made  clear  to  the  spectator.  In  TJie 
Bells,  when  Mathias  unties  his  money-bag  to 
count  out  Annette's  dowry,  he  mechanically  puts 
the  string  round  his  neck  not  to  lose  it,  and   then 


1 62  HENRY    IRVING. 

snatches  it  off  again  with  a  shiver ;  and  again,  in 
the  scene  with  Christian,  note  the  apparently 
mechanical  action  of  carefully  putting  a  coal  into 
the  stove,  of  which  he  opens  the  door  just  as  the 
gendarme  puts  forward  the  hypothesis  that  the 
body  of  the  murdered  Jew  must  have  been  cast 
into  a  lime-kiln  and  burnt.  Then  in  playing  lago, 
when  Desdemona,  in  the  first  act,  is  to  be  brought 
to  confront  her  father  and  Othello,  Irving,  b)'  a 
gesture,  puts  Cassio  forward  as  the  most  fitting 
messenger,  and  affects  a  little  surprise  when 
Othello  bids  him  go  himself,  as  "  knowing  the 
place." 

In  the  last  act  of  Louis  XI.  there  is  extra- 
ordinary finish,  and  suggestiveness  of  senility  and 
wilfulness  in  the  way  in  which  the  king's  trem- 
bling fingers  refuse  to  hold  the  sceptre,  just  after 
he  has  asserted  himself  to  be  "  strong  and  capa- 
ble."—  "An  original  and  ingenious  artifice,"  Mr. 
Button  Cook   calls   it.      But  we  say  much  more. 

Touches  of  this  sort  supply  a  clue  to  the  under- 
current of  motive,  by  which  the  spectator  is  al- 
most unconsciously  initiated  into  the  secrets  of  the 
character  as  the  actor  has  understood  it.  They 
are  not  its  very  substance  but  they  are  neverthe- 
less an  assurance  of  individuality  which,  so  long 
as  they  strictly  illustrate  the  character  and  do  not 


HIS   STYLE.  163 

betray  the  actor  are  not  merely  suitable  but  in- 
valuable, and  the  highest  art.  They  are,  in  fact, 
the  very  antithesis  and  opposite  of  mannerisms. 
In  Hamlet  he  is  perhaps  less  of  the  prince 
than  the  philosopher,  but  it  is  in  one  scene  especi- 
ally of  that  play  that  we  find  one  of  those  excep- 
tional passages  where  Irving  sinks  his  individuality 
in  the  situation  with  really  exquisite  effect.  This 
is  in  the  third .  act,  where  Ophelia  restores  the 
jewels  to  her  royal  lover ;  a  good  deal  in  the  de- 
tail of  the  conception  is  here  original  and  novel, 
but  it  is  the  performance  that  is  so  lovely  as  to 
leave  no  loop-hole  for  criticism.  The  exalted 
chivalry  of  Hamlet's  nature  which  bids  him  sup- 
press a  passion  that  must  find  vent,  and  at  last 
bursts  out  in  a  speech  verging  on  brutality  from 
the  sheer  impossibility  of  further  self-control,  is 
rendered  with  a  delicacy,  fullness,  and  dignity 
broken  by  anguish  which  make  it  one  of  the  most 
touching  presentments  ever  given  on  the  English 
stage.  Here,  when  Mr.  Irving  seems  to  have  no 
thought  for  any  one  but  Opheha,  he  never  fails  to 
have  his  audience  with  him  in  breathless  and  tear- 
less sympathy.  His  suffering  is  too  supreme  at 
the  moment — but  we  may  shed  a  tear,  by  stealth, 
when  it  is  over.  Mr.  Irving's  love-making  is  not  per- 
haps so  lavish  and  so  devoted  as  was  Fechter's  for 


1 64  HENRY    IRVING. 

instance,  but  it  is  of  a  type  which  appeals  as  much 
or  more  to  the    reasonable  woman — it  ought   to 
prove  irresistible  to  our  American  girls  !      "  It  is 
objected  to  him,"  says  Mr.  Wedmore  when  speak- 
ing of  lolaiithe,    "that   he    lacks    the    graces    of 
early  youth  ;  but  very  young  lovers   are  wont  to 
be  a  good  deal  occupied  with  their  graces  and  Mr. 
Irving  as  a  lover  is  occupied  with  his  love.      He  is 
chivalrous  and  he  is  warm,  and  it  is  not  generally 
recognized  —  because  he  has  been  seen  so  little  in 
lovers'  parts  —  that  he  is  chivalrous  and  warm  in 
a  peculiar  measure."      "Picturesque  and    chival- 
rously reverent,"  are  the  adjectives  applied  to  his 
performance    of   Count  Tristan    in    lolanthe    and 
these  two  epithets  in  fact  very  happily  express  the 
features  of  a  class  of  character  that  he  excels  in 
representing.     They   apply  to   his  tone   and   de- 
meanor in   fifty  situations  where   tenderness   and 
respect  for  woman  are  the  key-note  and  such  situ- 
ations become  him  well. 

The  truth  is  that  after  all  Henry  Irving  stands 
on  that  high  place  which  makes  those  who 
watch  him,  long  to  see  him  mount  higher;  he 
does  his  work  so  well  that  we  long  to  see 
it  perfect;  and  only  to  provoke  that  desire  an 
artist  must  be  already  great.  Irving  never  fails  to 
rouse  in  the  open-minded  spectator  two  of  the  in- 


HIS   STYLE.  165 

stincts  which  human  nature  finds  the  keenest 
pleasure  in  exercising:  sympathy  without  the 
pang  of  real  sorrow,  and  the  critical  faculty  with- 
out any  responsibility  of  judgment.  //  domic  a 
reflechir  the  French  would  say,  and  there  is  no 
more  delightful  relaxation  of  mind  than  such  re- 
flection affords.  Sometimes,  indeed,  we  cannot 
help  feeling  that  in  elaborating  the  part  he  has  in 
some  degree  misapprehended  the  play.  The  po- 
tentialities of  the  man  he  sets  before  us  are  even 
wider  and  deeper  than  the  immediate  situation 
demands,  but  they  do  not  always  perfectly  account 
for  the  development  of  the  action.  It  is  extremely 
difficult  to  give  an  instance  of  this,  as  it  must  de- 
pend in  some  measure  on  the  kinci  of  sympathy 
he  succeeds  in  evoking  in  each  individual,  and  one 
great  merit  counterbalances  the  fault :  we  never 
feel  as  if  he  had  ceased  acting  the  instant  he  is  off 
the  stage.  On  the  other  hand  seeing  him  act  — 
at  any  rate  in  one  of  his  best  parts  is  not  a  mere 
evening's  recreation  ;  he  has  stored  our  minds  with 
new  ideas  which  we  cannot  even  pronounce  a  ver- 
dict on  without  doubt  or  thought.  "  Mr.  Irving's 
performance  one  carries  away  and  thinks  about," 
says  a  sympathetic  but  acute  critic  in  Macmillan 
when  speaking  of  his  lago ;  and  this  is  true  of 
everything  he  does.      "  And  surely  the  most  pre- 


l66  HENRY   IRVING. 

judiced  person  must  admit  that  to  sway  the  feel- 
ings of  an  audience  in  such  various  roles  as  Ham- 
let, Louis  XL,  Eugene  Aram,  Shylock,  Mathias, 
and  Benedick,  a  man  must  possess  something 
more  than  a  few  mannerisms  and  much  earnest- 
ness. If  such  a  series  of  performances  does  not 
entitle  a  man  to  be  called  a  great  actor  we  do  not 
know  what  does."  (Theatre). 


The  English  stage  was  sorely  in  need  of  such 
an  actor  when  Irving  first  appeared  upon  it. 
Montgomery,  Dillon,  and  Melville  were  far  from 
satisfying  the  London  public.  Booth  had  visited 
them  and  Phelps  was  still  preeminent  in  his  best 
parts ;  they  had  Vezin  too,  an  actor  who  has 
never  been  duly  appreciated,  but  these  had  all 
failed  in  what  has  been  spoken  of  in  the  introduc- 
tion as  the  magic  touch  of -the  actor's  art:  they 
had  not  interpreted  the  spirit  of  the  time,  and 
failing  that  the  tongues  of  men  and  of  angels 
would  not  have  availed  them.  The  light  comedy 
of  Robertson,  as  played  by  the  Bancrofts,  held 
possession  of  London  and  was  the  only  fashiona- 
ble form  of  drama.  Henry  Irving  was  young, 
clever,  and  resolute  ;  he  had,  to  a  considerable  ex- 


AS   A    STAGE    MANAGER.  l6j 

tent  gauged  human  nature  in  the  provinces;  he 
felt  that  he  could  not  only  supply  a  want,  but  could 
make  the  Londoners  want  what  he  could  supply — 
a  subtler  and  a  rarer  talent. 

We  easily  read  between  the  lines  of  the  cri- 
tiques on  his  performances  how  large  a  share  his 
individuality  has  had  in  his  success.  His  audiences 
are  "  charmed,  fascinated,  spell-bound  "  in  the  first 
instance;  intellectual  appreciation  is  postponed,  at 
any  rate  till  the  second  time  of  seeing  him.  "  I 
can  always  tell  when  my  audience  is  with  me," 
Mr.  Irving  has  said,  and  the  sheer  determination 
to  hai'c  them  with  him  has  no  doubt  lifted  him 
over  many  a  shoal ;  the  intensity  of  his  will  has 
turned  the  tide. 

This  power  which  Mr.  Irving  himself  calls 
"  the  magnetic  personality  "  of  an  actor,  is,  it  may 
be  added,  precisely  the  same  as  that  which  makes 
a  manager.  "  The  art  of  stage  management  is  a 
gift,"  writes  Mr.  Robert  Recce,  "  a  direct  gift  or 
inspiration  ;  to  be  assisted  no  doubt  by  experience, 
but  never  to  be  perfunctorily  acquired."  A  mana- 
ger who  has  this  gift  will  not  only  insist  on  the 
thorough  rehearsal  and  careful  interpretation  of 
the  work  in  hand.  He  does  much  more  than  this. 
Inspiration,  like  dulness,  is  catching  ;  if  there  be 
any  sort  of  fuel  in  the  minds  of  his  colleagues  the 


1 68  HENRY    IRVING. 

vital  Spark  in  his  own  fires  it  and   diffuses  warmtii 
and  glow  to  the  whole,  though  he  may  fail  to   fan 
it  to  a  flame.      Go,  without  which  no  play  —  from 
a  tragedy  down   to   the  lightest  piece  de  circon- 
stance  —  can   rise   above  the   level   of  amateurish 
monotony,    largely    depends     on     the    impulsive 
power  of  the  manager,  and   the  little  word  is   a 
wide  one  as  regards  the  balance  of  qualities  it  pre- 
supposes in  one   man.      Mr.    Irving  —  so  say  all 
who  have  worked  with  him  —  is  a  born  manager, 
and  an  eminently  successful  one.     He  is  not,  to  be 
Sure,  his  own  stage-manager  nominally  ;  Mr.  Love- 
day  and  Mr.  Bram  Stoker  assisting  him  ;  but  he  is 
the  moving  spirit,  and  undoubtedly  gives  the  im- 
petus that  produces  the  Go.    "  Any  one  who  goes 
to  see  the  plays  Mr.  Irving  performs  in  such  varied 
succession  must  admit,  however  strong  his  preju- 
dices or  sentiments  against  Mr.  Irving's  acting  may 
be,  that  they  are  produced  with  the  greatest  care, 
and  with  something  very  like  perfection  as  regards 
all  the  accessories.      The  patience  and  intelligence 
he  brings  to  bear  on  every  detail  in  the  rehearsals, 
thinking  nothing   too  trivial    for   the   exercise    of 
care,  taking  as  much  pains  with  the  supernumer- 
aries as  with  the  principal  actors,  are  manifest  in 
that  general   completeness  and  dramatic  effective- 
ness which  are   recognized   by  all   the  spectators, 


THE    USE    OF   EXPERIENCE.  1 69 

but   the    cause    of    which    is    only    known    to    a 

few." 

When  the  manager  is  also  the  principal  actor 
a  temptation  lies  open  to  him  which  it  requires  a 
gracious  and  a  magnanimous  spirit  alike  to  resist : 
that  namely  to  act  his  part  rather  than  the  play. 
We  have  said  that  Mr.  Irving  has  occasionally 
erred  in  this  direction,  but  we  cannot,  in  his  case, 
attribute  it  to  any  want  of  magnanimity.  It  is 
only  that  he  is  apt  to  carry  his  psychological  study 
beyond  and  outside  the  situations  in  which  the 
character  is  revealed  to  the  audience  and  to  the 
other  characters  in  the  play.  In  such  parts  as 
Shylock,  Louis  XI.,  Mathias,  and  Eugene  Aram, 
the  result  is  splendid ;  in  some  others  it  over- 
weights the  part  with  meaning —  or  so  we  venture 
to  think. 

There  are  plays,  and  they  are  the  finest,  in 
which  the  situation  is  the  resultant  of  all  the 
forces  of  outer  circumstance  in  collision  with  all 
the  forces  of  a  man's  nature ;  but  when  the  critics 
tell  us  that  Irving's  Claude  Melnotte  is  "  too  virile," 
that  his  Modus  is  not  pitched  in  quite  the  right 
key,  that  his  Romeo  is  not  altogether  satisfactory, 
and  when  we  try  to  find  the  reason,  it  irresistibly 
strikes  us  this  is  not  because  he  looks  too  old  —  that 
would  be  easily  remedied  with  a  face  and  figure  so 


170  HENRY    IRVING. 

alert  and  plastic — but  because  he  overcharges  the 
character  with  experience.  Not  with  the  experience 
of  the  actor,  but  with  the  experience  of  the  man. 
It  is  an  old  saying  that :  "  no  actor  can  learn  to 
act  Romeo  till  he  is  too  old  to  act  it,"  and  this  is 
the  secret  of  the  paradox.  By  the  time  the  actor 
knows  enough  the  man  knows  too  much,  and  to 
render  the  character  truthfully  he  must,  for  the 
time,  forget  it 

In  an  article  in  The  Saturday  Revieiv,  written 
early  in  1876,  we  find  a  remark  which  throws  so 
direct  a  light  on  our  own  view  that  Irving  is 
essentially  a  man  of  his  time,  that  we  cannot  for- 
bear quoting  it :  "  We  must  allow  that  there  is 
something  morbid  and  unwholesome  in  both  The 
Bells  and  Eugene  Aram,  though  the  representa- 
tion of  their  agonies  is  calculated  rather  to  deter, 
than  to  encourage  any  imitation  of  their  example. 
We  have  merely  a  dismal  study  in  the  morbid 
anatomy  of  crime,  without  subtlety  of  character 
or  anything  to  elevate  and  exhilarate  the  mind." 

"Without  subtlety  of  character," — No.  The 
critic  here  contradicts  himself;  if  this  were  lacking 
there  would  be  no  anatomy  properly  speaking. 
It  would  be  mere  hacking  and  hewing,  not  dis- 
secting. Now  Irving's  work  is  dissecting;  it  is 
this  very  display  of  morbid  psychology  which  is 


HIS  ADVOCACY  OF  THE  THEATRE.    I^I 

SO  thoroughly  nineteenth  century,  and  it  is  this 
power  of  analysis  and  synthesis  which  enables  him 
to  gratify  one  of  the  appetites  of  the  day.  That 
he  does  so  in  a  purely  moral  way  and  never  has 
pandered  to  the  baser  curiosity  and  sensual  sym- 
pathies of  his  audience  is  his  great  merit.  He  has 
dignified  remorse  but  not  crime ;  he  has  clung  to 
the  beauty  of  truth  —  not  only  in  accuracy  of  deli- 
neation, but  in  sincerity  of  purpose,  and  to  the 
beauty  of  purity  alike  in  the  spirit  of  his  acting 
and  in  his  choice  of  plays. 

But  Mr.  Irving  always  carries  his  standard 
high  and  defends  his  colors  bravely.  Being  in- 
vited to  address  a  meeting  at  a  conference  held  in 
the  East  of  London  in  1877  he  spoke  at  con- 
siderable length  on  the  moral  value  and  far  from 
irreligious  tendencies  of  the  English  stage.  "  It 
is  also  a  sign  of  the  times,"  he  said,  "  that  you 
have  invited  an  actor  to  read  a  paper  before  you. 

*  *  *  Reflect  how  little  the  masses  of  our  great 
towns  are  under  the  active  influence  of  religion 

*  *  *  and  comparatively  how  much  they  frequent 
the  minor  theatres.  Much  in  these  theatres  is 
vulgar,  and  there  may  even  be  things  that  are 
deleterious.  Nor  would  I  deny  that  even  good 
teachings  come  disfigured  on  to  the  minor  stage — 
aye,  and  on  the  major  also  —  as  they  often  do  in 


1/2  HENRY    IRVING 

pulpits  and  books.  None  the  less,  however,  is  it 
true  that  the  main  stream  of  dramatic  sentiment 
in  all  veins  is  pure,  kindly,  righteous,  and  in  a 
sense,  religious.  *  *  *  I  claim  for  histrionic  art 
affinity  with  much  that  is  beneficent  and  elevating 
in  religion.  The  stage  must  not  be  homiletic  or 
didactic.  If  there  be  any  who  are  for  veiling  from 
human  sight  all  the  developments  of  evil,  they 
indeed  must  turn  from  the  theatre  door  and  desire 
to  see  the  footlights  put  out ;  but  they  must  also 
close  Shakespeare,  avoid  Fielding,  Dickens,  Thack- 
eray, George  Eliot  *  *  *  and  on  the  stage,  as  in 
the  noblest  poetry  and  teaching,  there  is  to  be 
found  every  refining  influence  known  to  mankind 
—  bright  lights  for  guidance,  sweet  words  of 
encouragement,  comprehended  even  by  the  most 
ignorant  —  glowing  pictures  of  virtue  and  devo- 
tion—  which  bring  the  world  of  high  thoughts 
and  bright  lives  into  communion  and  fellowship 
with  the  sphere  of  simple,  or  perhaps  coarse,  day- 
to-day  existence." 

If  space  allowed  the  whole  address  would  be 
well  Avorth  quoting ;  it  is  a  worthy  exposition  of  the 
duties  and  the  influence  of  the  stage.  In  com- 
menting on  it  a  writer  in  The  Theatre  (May  8th, 
1877),  says  :  "The  actor  was  addressing  a  society 
connected  by  special  designation  with  the  Church. 


HIS  ADVOCACY  OF  THE  THEATRE.    1 73 

The  times  indeed  are  changed  !  Only  in  the  last 
century  Junius  addressed  David  Garrick  as  thou 
vagabond y — as  he  was  in  fact,  and  as  every  actor 
still  is  by  the  law  and  statute  of  England  !  There 
has,  no  doubt  been  a  marked  expansion  of  sym- 
pathy for  the  stage,  under  every  aspect,  in 
England  during  the  last  fifteen  years,  and  during 
the  last  ten  Mr.  Irving  has  had  considerable  influ- 
ence in  directing  the  flow  of  sympathy  into  a 
wholesome  channel.  Some  of  it  runs  in  driblets 
of  not  unexceptionable  taste  —  burlesque  is  popu- 
lar, very  popular  in  London  ;  but  in  every  great 
city  there  must  be  some  vent  for  the  animal 
spirits  of  the  young  and  ignorant ;  and  the  finish 
with  which  these  frothy  works  are  mounted  fre- 
quently justifies  their  success.  But  in  England, 
as  with  us,  there  is  a  steady  demand  for  work  of  a 
superior  stamp  and  many  of  the  West-end  thea- 
tres provide  nothing  of  a  lower  class  than  domes- 
tic drama,  some  of  them  adhering  consistently  to 
the  higher  walks  of  comedy  and  tragedy.  The 
general  tendency  is  upwards  and  this  is  partly  due 
to  the  immediate  influence  of  Irving  who  has  in 
this  respect  handed  down  the  good  traditions 
of  the  Kembles,  Macready,  and  Charles  Kean. 
In  the  speech  above  quoted  he  very  justly  ob- 
served that  an  evening  spent  by  a  laboring  man 


174  HENRY    IRVING. 

even  in  an  inferior  theatre,  was  better  than  four 
hours  of  drinking  in  a  public-house ;  and  he 
might  have  added  that  among  the  upper  classes  it 
Avas  a  more  intelligent  amusement  —  to  put  it  at 
the  lowest  —  than  the  constant  card-playing  at 
which  their  grandparents  lost  their  time,  temper, 
and  money. 

With  some  reason,  we  may  think  that  the  re- 
vival of  the  old  English  dramatic  literature  —  and 
in  particular  of  the  romantic  play  of  the  Eliza- 
bethans—  which   has   recently   set    in,    is  due   in 
great  measure  to  the  serious  exertions  of  one  ac- 
tor of  Hberal  education,  critical  discernment  and 
delicate  taste.  To  the  efforts  towards  the  redemp- 
tion of  the  stage  made  by  Mr.  Irving  and  those 
who  act  with  him,  is  due   the   interest  which   for 
some    few    years    past    has    been    manifested    in 
Shakespearian  play.     That  the  interest  for  which 
we  have  to  thank  the   actor  is  wholesome  in  its 
influence  is  a  statement  needing  no  proof;  that  it 
is  intense  is  shown  by  the  circumstance  that  in  the 
consideration  of  the  plays  each  disputant  still  con- 
tests every  nice  discrimination  of  character,   not 
with  the  impartiality  of  one  who   sits  in  judgment 
on  the  metaphysical  accuracy  of  the   creation    of 
an  author's  fancy,  but  with  the  warm  partisanship 
of  one  who  claims  kindred   with  the  imaginary 


HIS    SPEECHES    AND    WRITINGS.  175 

personages,  and  a  right  to  know  them  better  than 
another. 

Mr.  Irving  speaks  and  writes  with  faciHty  and 
when  his  subject  is  the  defense  or  rather  eulogy  of 
the  stage,  the  drama,  and  histrionic  art,  he  speaks 
with  warmth  and  writes  with  elegance.  The 
addresses  spoken  at  Northampton,  Perry  Barr,  and 
Edinburgh,  are  full  of  cogent  persuasion,  and  his 
last  published  article,  "  Shakespeare  on  the  stage 
and  in  the  study,"  is  really  brilliant  both  in  argu- 
ment and  in  style.  He  has  also  written  papers  of 
abstract  study  and  of  personal  defence  for  various 
journals  and  periodicals.  To  the  Nineteejith  Cen- 
tury, a  London  monthly,  he  long  ago  contributed 
some  "Actor's  Notes."  The  first  of  these  on  the 
"Third  Murderer  in  Macbeth,"  though  the  point  it 
deals  with  is  not  perhaps  very  important  in  eluci- 
dating the  text  to  the  reader,  is  of  technical  value 
to  the  actor  and  stage-manager  as  bearing  on  a 
practical  matter  of  probability  in  the  development 
of  the  action  of  the  play.  The  second  of  these 
"Actors  Notes,"  published  in  May,  1877,  is  of  the 
highest  interest  as  a  clue  to  Mr.  Irving's  reading 
of  the  complex  mystery  of  Hamlet's  character 
and  his  relations  to  Ophelia.  The  third  is  a  more 
strictly  historical  discussion  of  the  traditions  and 
practice  of  several  actors  in  their  treatment  of  the 


1/6  HENRY   IRVING. 

scene  in  Hamlet  where  he  upbraids  his  mother  for 
her  faithlessness  to  his  father's  memory.  "  It  may," 
he  says,  "  be  interesting  to  the  public  to  receive 
occasionally  from  an  actor  some  explanation  of 
the  theories  which  he  embodies  in  his  own  imper- 
sonations, or  wishes  to  see  incorporated  in  the  un- 
written constitution  of  his  art;"  and  he  proceeds 
to  give  his  reasons  for  discarding  the  use  either  of 
full-length  portraits  or  of  miniatures  in  his  reading 
of  the  passage : 

"  Look  here,  upon  this  picture,  and  on  this." 

"The  stage,"  said  Mr.  Irving  at  Northampton  in 
1878,  "  is  ruled  by  traditions  compared  with 
which  the  laws  of  the  Medes  and  Persians  were 
elastic ;  but  I  suppose  it  is  possible,  even  in  these 
degenerate  days,  to  throw  some  new  light  on  the 
poet's  meaning." 


In  the  Theatre  for  July,  1879,  we  find  a  well- 
written  article  comparing  the  efforts  of  Mr.  Irving, 
single-handed,  with  the  results  of  the  time-hon- 
ored traditions  of  the  Comedie  Frangaise  in  Paris. 
The  members  of  that  Society  had  been  recently 
acting  in   England,  and   the   admirable   results  of 


THE  TRUE  SCHOOL  OF  DRAMATIC  ART.    177 

their  scheme  of  working  were  no  doubt  very  con- 
spicuous. But  the  writer  in  the  Theatre  main- 
tained, and  we  think  not  unsuccessfully,  that  in 
every  point  which  could  be  supposed  to  depend 
on  the  constitution  of  the  Society — perfection  of 
rehearsal,  propriety  of  cast,  and  finish  of  "  busi- 
ness " —  the  performances  at  the  Lyceum  could 
well  hold  their  own.  The  necessity  for  a  National 
School  for  Dramatic  Art,  for  a  Conservatoire,  for 
a  subsidized  or  at  any  rate  for  a  chartered  Theatre, 
has  been  warmly  and  wearisomely  discussed  in 
England  and  the  subject  is  as  far  as  ever  from  be- 
ing settled.  Every  travelled  American  has  seen 
the  performances  at  the  famous  Paris  theatre  and 
may  judge  for  himself  of  the  relative  merits  of  the 
training  there  and  in  our  own  best  play-houses  ; 
the  question  as  regards  London  concerns  us  here 
only  so  far  as  it  concerns  Mr.  Irving.  If  ever  an 
actor  was  qualified  by  patient  experience  to  speak 
of  the  processes  of  histrionic  training  it  is  a  man 
who  has  so  long  and  so  diligently  studied  the  art. 
Little  of  the  drill  needed  to  cultivate  the  actor's 
instincts  for  his  art  —  given  those  instincts  of 
course — "  can  be  got  in  a  mere  training  school, 
but  all  of  it  will  come  forth,  more  or  less  fully 
armed,  from  the  actor's  brain  in  the  process  of 
learning  his  art  by  practice,"  says  Mr.  Irving.  We 


1^8  HENRY    IRVING. 

conceive  that  Mr.   Irving  was  hardly  so   expHcit 
here  as  he  might  have   been.      "  The   proposition 
that  young  actors  are  to  be  pitchforked  on  to  the 
stage  and  learn  all   these  things  in   the   presence 
and  at  the  cost   of  audiences    would    be  absurd 
enough,"   says   the   Saturday   Review,  ''  ^nd  we 
can    hardly    suppose  that   this    is    what   Mr.    Ir- 
ving intended."     Mr.  Irving  we  are  sure  did  not 
mean  that  beginners  should  go  through  the  goose 
step  and  awkward  squad  drill  of  their  art  in  pub- 
lic performances  of  Hamlet  or  Othello,  but  we  are 
very  sure  nevertheless  that  he   is   right.      Recep- 
tiveness  is  one  of  the  first  quahties  needed    in  an 
actor ;  he  must  study  from  life  as  he  grows  older 
and  he  can  hardly  learn  the  rudiments  by  any  bet- 
ter method  than  by  watching,  nay  even  imitating, 
actors  of  eminence  and  thus  learning  what  he  has 
to  work  with.      "  Acting  like  every  other  art  has 
its  mechanism,"  says  Mr.  Irving;*  but  some  very 
thoughtful  writers  seem  to  overlook  the  fact  that 
seeing  the  mechanism  at  work  is  at  the  bottom  of 
all   stage   training  —  watching  how   other   actors 
use  their  means  and  experimenting  on  oneself  as 
to  what  means  of  voice,  facial  expression  or  breadth 
of  gesture  —  one  is  blest  with  by  nature,  can  mas- 

*  In  a  short  preface  to  a  translation  of  "Talma  on  the  Actor's 
Art."     1-ondon,  Bickus  &  Rush. 


THE  TRUE  SCHOOL  OF  DRAMATIC  ART.    1 79 

ter  by  study  or  —  on  the  other  hand  —  can  never 
hope  to  acquire.  The  Saturday  Review  goes  on 
to  remark  tliat  "in  the  Conservatoire  at  Paris  the 
actors  are  certainly  taught  how  to  enunciate,  how  to 
emphasize,  how  to  move  well  and  effectively  .  .  .  .  " 
but  what 'then?  —  if  this  is  all  a  generation  of 
machines  will  be  the  result  and  not  of  actors. 

"  The  lamentation  that  there  are  now  no 
schools  for  actors  is  a  very  idle  one.  Every  actor 
in  full  employment  gets  plenty  of  schooling,  for 
the  best  schooling  is  practice."  So  spoke  Mr. 
Irving  at  Edinburgh  in  1881.  But  a  critic  in 
Macmillaii  s  Magazine  had  an  answer  for  him  : 
"  No  one  knows  better  than  Mr.  Irving  that  every 
actor  is  not  always  in  full  employment.  *  *  *  And 
who  has  now  to  pay  for  such  schooling  as  Mr.  Ir- 
ving advocates,  as  too  many  of  our  young  actors 
only  get  ?  What  of  us,  the  poor  public  —  the 
vile  corpus  on  whom  these  painful  experiments  are 
made  ?"  Here  again  we  think  is  a  critic  who  has 
failed  to  understand  that  it  is  Mr.  Irving's  own  ex- 
perience that  leads  him  to  speak  thus.  The  ques- 
tion we  think  is  past  disputing  as  to  whether  such 
a  course  of  training  is  the  best  or  not  —  the  real 
point  and  a  far  more  vital  question  now,  is  whether 
the  school  which  we,  like  Mr.  Irving,  think  so 
much  the  best  still   exists.     The  system   of  long 

12  * 


l8o  HENRY   IRVING. 

runs  on  one  hand  and  touring  with  companies  on 
the  other  is  we  fear  sapping  it  at   the    root.      Mr. 
Irving   graduated   in    it,  nay   has  come   out   first 
wrangler ;  but  he  must  pardon  us  for  pointing  out 
that   the  training   which    one    of  his   own   young 
subordinates  may  get  from  seeing  him  play  Romeo, 
Hamlet,    Shylock,   what   not,   for   weeks  together 
and  playing   under  him  —  even  if  he  should  rise 
from  figuring  as  Bernardo  to  performing   Horatio 
or  Bassanio  —  has  absolutely  no  relation  either  as 
mental  education,  or  practical  experience  or,  as  we 
might  say,  moral  training,  to  the  schooling  that 
contributed  to  make  him  what  he  is.   He  knows — 
no  one  better  —  that  catching  a  manner  is  not  ac- 
quiring a  method  ;   that  the  precious  grace  of  due 
subordination  will  not  carry  an  actor  to  the  top  of 
the  tree   unless  it  is  supplemented   by  a  variety  of 
practice.      Some  little  time  since  an  actor  was  an- 
nounced  as   "  a  pupil   of  Mr.    Irving's,"   but   Mr. 
Irving  repudiated  him  mercilessly.      "  I  never  had 
a  pupil,"  he  wrote  to  the    Theatre,  "  and  I   never 
shall  have  a  pupil." 

We  entirely  agree  with  Mr.  Frederick  Wedmore, 
one  of  the  most  judicious  of  living  dramatic  critics, 
when  he  says :  "  Very  long  runs  are,  in  the  main, 
injurious  to  theatrical  art.  They  tend,  generally,  to 
confirm  and  exaggerate  mannerisms,  even  where 


THE  TRUE  SCHOOL  OF  DRAMATIC  ART.    l8l 

they  do  not  breed  carelessness.  They  deprive  the 
player  for  the  time  of  his  variety  and  sometimes 
permanently  of  his  flexibility.  They  are  apt  to 
make  of  the  comedian  a  comic  actor.  They  en- 
courage the  vice  of  the  specialist,  a  vice  which 
afflicts  all  the  arts,"  and  which,  we  may  add  is 
more  vicious  in  that  of  acting  than  in  any  other. 
The  mania  for  expensive  mounting  is  of  course  at 
the  bottom  of  long  runs.  A  play  costing  from 
5,000  to  8,000  dollars  to  put  upon  the  stage  must 
run  or  it  means  ruin.  "  But  a  Shakespearian  play 
or  even  a  brilliant  1 8th  century  comedy  needs  but  a 
moderate  outlay  in  stage  mounting,  and  perhaps" — 
Mr.  Wedmore  goes  on  to  say,  "  we  should  not  be 
far  wide  of  the  mark  if  we  said  that  the  art  of 
acting  in  the  greater  drama  is  never  submitted  to 
its  severest  and  final  test  until  there  is  no  opportu- 
nity for  surprise  or  unmeasured  admiration  at 
the  art  of  the  scene-painter  or  decorator,  and  at 
the  knowledge  of  the  antiquary."  This,  we  know, 
is  not  Mr.  Irving's  opinion. 

Mr.  Burnand  thinks  that  there  is  "  as  good  a 
chance  now  as  ever  for  the  actor  of  ordinary 
talent."  So  far  we  agree  with  him.  But  even  the 
man  who  "  has  it  in  him  "  needs  to  be  fully  trained 
as  an  accomplished  gentleman  to  figure  well  on 
the  stage.     Of  course  it  is  immaterial  whether  he 


1 82  HENRY    IRVING. 

acquires  it  by  imitation  and  practice  or  by  regular 
schooling,  but  somehow  or  somewhere  he  must 
learn  to  move  his  limbs  and  speak  with  finish  ;  he 
must  fence,  dance,  and  have  a  knowledge  of  artis- 
tic effect  in  make-up.  We  believe  a  good  theatre 
is  better  for  all  this  than  "the  quackery  of 
teachers."  "The  career  of  Mr.  Irving,"  says  the 
Academy  in  1874,  "  may  be  adduced  in  support  of 
the  theory  *  *  that,  in  spite  of  many  disadvan- 
tages, a  provincial  theatre  is  an  actor's  best  train- 
ing place.  *  *  *  Not  a  few  of  the  best  players, 
even  of  the  contemporary  Theatre,  first  trod  the 
boards  in  parts  of  any  importance  at  that  old 
Bristol  play-house  which  Garrick  used  to  praise  so 
warmly.  Mr.  Irving,  we  believe,  acted  chiefly  in 
the  North." 

"  It  is  pleasant  reflection,  alike  for  those  who 
have  urged  and  those  who  have  feared  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  state  theatre,  that  should  Mr.  Irving's 
prosperity  last  and  should  his  endeavors  retain 
their  present  direction,  most  of  the  good,  with  some 
of  the  possible  evil,  arising  from  any  Government 
interference  will  be  secured.  A  Conservatoire  will 
it  is  true,  still  be  wanted  :  but  it  is  hard  to  see  how, 
in  any  subsidized  theatre  we  could  confidently 
look  for  a  worthier  selection  of  plays,  for  more 
perfect  stage- presentation,  or  for  more  earnest  art 


MR.    IRVING'S    LEADING    POSITION.  1 83 

than  are  given  and  promised  us  at  the  T.yceum  *  * 
Mr.  Irving  has  only  to  go  on  as  he  has  begun  to 
make  the  Lyceum  Theatre  a  nationl  institution, 
not  by  a  vote  granted  by  Act  of  ParHament,  but 
by  the  consensus  of  opinion  amongst  those  who 
take  most  interest  in  our  acted  drama  as  it  is,  and 
who  have  most  faith  in  its  future  development." 

In  1876  when  Mr.  Irving  made  his  first  tour 
in  the  provinces  it  was  as  "a  star,"  playing  his 
best  parts  with  the  staff  companies  of  whom  he 
had  once  been  so  earnest  and  painstaking  a  mem- 
ber. Miss  Isabel  Bateman  was  with  him  in  some 
towns,  but  towards  the  end  of  the  tour  she  fell  ill. 
His  recent  tours  have  been  more  elaborately  or- 
ganized and  he  has  taken  different  members  of  his 
company  to  support  him. 

His  vigorous  health  and  energy  have  carried 
him  through  fatigues  and  anxieties  which  might 
have  broken  down  a  less  determined  man  ;  on  the 
other  hand  successes  worthy  to  be  called  triumphs 
have  been  his  reward  and  encouragement. 

In  June,  1877,  he  visited  Dublin  for  one  day. 
He  left  London  on  Saturday  night  after  acting  at 
the  Lyceum,  crossed  to  Dublin  on  Sunday,  gave  a 
promised  reading  in  Trinity  College  on  Monday, 
and  was  in  London  on  Tuesday  in  time  to  appear 
at  the  usual  hour  at  the  Lyceum,  which  had  been 


1 84  HENRY    IRVING. 

closed  for  only  one  night.  The  day  in  Dubhn  was 
a  great  success.  He  was  received  at  the  Dean's 
rooms  before  ^proceeding  to  the  Hall  of  Trinity 
College  where  he  gave  a  reading  in  the  afternoon. 
The  selection  was  intentionally  as  varied  as  possi- 
ble, "  from  grave  to  gay,  from  lively  to  severe," 
only  reversed ;  for  he  began  with  a  humorous 
poem  and  went  on  to  passages  from  Othello  and 
Richard  HI.,  ending  with  Hood's  poem  of  Eugene 
Aram.  "  The  venerable  provost  of  the  college 
told  Mr.  Irving  that  his  rendering  of  this  poem 
reminded  him  of  Edmund  Kean  in  his  grandest 
moments  of  inspiration."  Between  the  closing  of 
the  Lyceum  theatre  in  July,  1878,  and  its  being 
reopened  under  his  own  management  in  Decem- 
ber Irving  first  took  a  short  holiday  —  broken, 
however,  by  reading  for  charities,  and  then  made  a 
professional  tour  in  the  English  provinces.  He 
went  to  Preston,  Liecester,  Liverpool,  Dublin,  Man- 
chester, Greenock,  Dundee,  Edinburgh,  Glasgow, 
Sheffield,  and  Bristol  and  played  to  houses  crowded 
not  merely  with  rank  and  fashion  but  with  critical 
play-goers  who  watched  him  with  absorbed  inter- 
est and  sympathy.  This  again  was  a  .starring  tour, 
and  in  every  respect  an  immense  success ;  the 
provincial  papers  wrote  of  him  with  more  enthus- 
iasm perhaps  than  judgment  but  with   a   :^eal  that 


PROVINCIAL    TOURS.  1 85 

found  an  echo  in  the  applause  of  every  audience 
to  whom  he  played. 

In  1879,  Mr.  Irving  gave  himself*  leave  of  ab- 
sence from  the  boards,  and  paced  the  deck  in- 
stead —  of  a  yacht  belonging  to  his  constant  and 
appreciative  friend  the  Baroness  Burdett  Coutts. 
In  1880  his  holiday  was  a  short  one  for  in  the 
winter  season  he  brought  out  as  we  have  seen  The 
Corsicaii  Brothers,  The  Cap,  and  The  Belle's 
Stratagem.  The  season  began  early  too,  before 
the  end  of  September.  Mr.  Irving's  visits  to  Ire- 
land and  Scotland  have  usually  been  the  crowning 
glories  of  his  provincial  tours.  At  Dublin  he  is 
always  enthusiastically  welcomed  and  in  Novem- 
ber, 1 88 1,  when  he  and  Miss  Terry  went  together 
to  Edinburgh  they  played  to  houses,  "  packed  to 
suffocation,"  as  may  be  easily  imagined  when  we 
hear  that  "  thirteen  performances  were  witnessed 
by  thirty  thousand  persons."  It  was  on  the  oc- 
casion of  his  being  invited  to  .speak  at  the  leading 
Literary  Institution  of  Edinburgh  during  his  stay 
that  he  delivered  the  address  on  "  The  Stage  as  it 
is."  In  1882  he  v/as  again  away  for  a  short  tour — 
and  now  he  is  about  to  make  a  very  long  one.  He 
has  bid  his  London  friends  farewell  for  ten  months, 
promising  to  meet  them  again  on  the  2d  of  June 
next    year.      Mr.    Irving  is,    we   know,    the    most 


1 86  HENRY    IRVING. 

punctual  of  men  and  always  keeps  his  promises. 
This  being  the  case  America  must  make  the  most 
of  her  opportunities.  She  will  see  much  to  criti- 
cise but  more  —  infinitely  more  —  to  enjoy. 


In  his  relations  to  his  brother  artists  Henry 
Irving  shows  a  generous  and  magnanimous  spirit. 
His  readings  and  performances  for  benefits  and 
charities  are  too  many  to  enumerate.  The  invidi- 
ous remark  is  of  course  sufficiently  trite  that  these 
are  his  best  advertisement.  We  grant  that  for 
what  it  is  worth.  It  does  not  alter  the  fact  that  he 
gives  up  his  time  and  exercises  his  talents  for 
others  and  always  in  the  most  liberal  and  gracious 
manner  possible,  whether  it  be  at  the  request  of 
some  illustrious  personage  for  a  public  institution, 
or  for  the  more  direct  succour  of  some  impover- 
ished or  invalided  brother  in  art.  And  no  trouble 
is  too  great  for  him.  On  February  14th,  1877, 
being  Ash- Wednesday,  Mr.  Irving  gave  up  his 
holiday  to  read  gratuitously  for  the  benefit  of  a 
charity.  The  eldest  Miss  Bateman  (Mrs.  Crowe) 
very  liberally  shared  the  toil  and  Macbeth  was 
read,  or  rather  recited  without  acting — with  only 
such  artistic  expression  as  was  required  to  emplia- 


ACTS   OF    LIBERALITY.  1 8/ 

size  the  reader's  art.  As  is  very  usual  with  Mr. 
Irving,  the  construction  he  gave  to  some  of  the 
sentences  by  his  punctuation  startled  the  more 
cultured  part  of  his  audience  "  by  an  ingenuity 
which  is  not  invariably  satisfactory  and  which 
finds  no  confirmation  in  any  text  hitherto  dis- 
covered." The  room  was  crowded  with  an  enthu- 
siastic audience  and  the  actors'  liberality  duly 
recognized.  Another  graceful  act  on  the  part  of 
Mr.  Irving  was  his  joining  the  committee  to  con- 
sider the  form  to  be  given  a  memorial  to  Mr. 
John  Oxenford  who  for  many  years  had  been  a 
popular  and  successful  writer  for  the  stage  and  a 
discriminating  dramatic  critic.  In  August,  1878, 
when  the  Lyceum  season  ended,  before  beginning 
his  tour  for  his  own  benefit  Mr.  Irving  gave  some 
entertainments  for  the  benefit  of  various  local 
societies  and  charities ;  he  read  at  Northampton 
in  aid  of  the  fimd  for  restoring  a  church ;  at 
Edebarton  he  laid  the  foundation-stone  of  a 
public  institution  and  three  days  afterwards  gave 
a  reading  at  Belfast  for  a  charity.  It  need  hardly 
be  said  that  gratitude  added  enthusiasm  to  the 
applause  he  earned  on  these  and  many  other 
occasions.  In  Greenock,  in  1878,  he  was  the  first 
to  suggest  a  subscription  for  the  relief  of  the  suf- 
ferers by  the  failure  of  a  great  joint-stock  bank 


1 88  HENRY   IRVING. 

and  he  and  Mr.  Toole  at  once  gave  two  perfor- 
mances in  aid  of  the  impoverished  victims,  handing- 
over  ;^730  sterHng  to  the  committee. 

In  1879  he  was  one  of  the  first  to  offer  aid  at 
Birmingham,  when  a  fire  destroyed  the  Shakes- 
peare Library,  by  proposing  to  give  a  reading  in 
that  town.  In  June,  1879,  he  helped  in  a  per- 
formance in  aid  of  the  Isandula  fund  as  did  Mr. 
Vezin  and  many  other  distinguished  professionals. 
In  1 88 1  a  bazaar  was  held  for  the  Perry  Beers 
Institute,  and  Mr.  Irving  travelled  down  to  Bir- 
mingham and  back  in  the  day  to  open  it,  "  earn- 
ing the  gratitude  of  the  whole  profession." 

Acting  for  benefits  is  a  piece  of  liberality  on 
the  "ca'  me  and  I'll  ca'  thee"  principle  which 
every  actor  is  bound  to  in  his  turn ;  but  a  benefit 
carried  out  with  the  liberality  that  Mr.  Irving 
showed  when  he  organized  a  "  good  night's  work" 
before  the  retirement  of  his  old  friend  and  sup- 
porter Mr.  Chippendale,  is  uncommon  even  in 
that  very  liberal  profession.  Irving  played  Hamlet 
and  the  veteran  actor  performed  Polonius,  and  in 
the  speech  in  which  Mr.  Chippendale  took  leave 
of  the  public  he  acknowledged  Mr.  Irving's  gener- 
osity and  delicacy  in  the  warmest  terms,  explain- 
ing that  the  whole  receipts  of  the  evening  had 
been  presented  to  him  "  a  princely  and  I  believe 


HIS    PERSONAL   INFLUENCE.  1 89 

unprecedented  act  of  liberality."  It  was  a  hand- 
some and  graceful  acknowledgment  to  perhaps  the 
oldest  actor  on  the  stage,  for  Mr.  Chippendale,  who 
had  played  with  Edmund  Kean  and  Charles  Kem- 
ble,  was  then  seventy-eight  years  of  age.  Mr. 
Irving  had  a  year  or  two  previously  played  in 
The  Two  Roses  for  his  old  friend  Mr.  Belford. 

Of  far  greater  importance,  however,  to  the 
profession  at  large  than  any  direct  act  of  kindness 
is  the  improved  position  which  Mr.  Irving's  per- 
sonal influence  has  contributed  to  gain  for  it  It 
is  certain  that  the  audiences  who  have  met,  not 
only  to  hear  him  speak  and  to  enjoy  his  readings, 
but  who  have  frequented  his  theatre,  include  a 
vast  number  of  persons  to  whom  the  bare  idea  of 
welcoming  and  listening  to  an  actor  would  a  few 
years  since  have  been  utter  abomination.  This  is 
a  change  which  does  credit  both  to  the  profession 
and  the  public,  and  Mr.  Irving  must  have  his  full 
share  of  the  credit ;  his  tact  and  taste  have  been 
largely  instrumental  in  setting  a  seal  of  something 
more  than  respectability  on  his  profession  and 
showing  that  there  is  a  dignity  in  his  art  which 
raises  it  ''above  the  foot-lights  and  the  green- 
room." The  demand  for  actors  who  have  the 
traditions  of  good  society  as  well  as  the  culture  of 
good  education  has  grown  greatly  during  the  last 


190 


HENRY    IRVING. 


few  years,  and  the  morals  as  well  as  the  manners 
of  the  stage  have  risen  in  tone.  Men  of  family 
and  character  have  joined  the  profession  and  it 
can  show  some  shining  examples  of  feminine 
talent  and  virtue.  As  a  wholesome  sense  of  the 
equality  of  all  men  of  education  and  of  all  women 
of  pure  lives  and  refined  culture  leavens  English 
society,  the  moral  influence  of  the  Theatre  on  the 
public  mind,  and  of  public  feeling  on  the  whole 
class  of  actors  will  be  increasingly^  beneficial  and 
elevating.  Mr.  Irving  is  by  no  means  the  origi- 
nator of  this  movement  in  the  right  direction,  but 
his  personal  charm  and  influence  have  contributed, 
there  can  be  no  doubt,  to  add  grace  to  the  virtues 

of  others. 

In  private  society  Mr.  Irving  is  a  perfectly 
courteous  gentleman,  always  ready  to  discuss  his 
art  with  the  lady  next  to  him  at  dinner,  and  if  she 
is  intelligent  and  bright-witted  he  will  be  frank 
and  responsive ;  but  like  every  man  whose  whole 
life,  and  thought,  and  endeavor  have  been  directed 
into  a  channel  which  he  has  chosen  for  himself,  the 
flow  is  checked  as  by  a  frost  in  an  uncongenial  at- 
mosphere ;  and  as  he  is  probably  one  of  those 
men  who  will  not  submit  to  be  dull  he  will,  likely 
enough,  become  satirical. 

As  a  host  he  is  said  to  be  genial,  lavish,  emi- 


IN    PRIVATE.  191 

nently  festive.  His  establishment  "  behind  the 
scenes,"  at  the  Lyceum  inckides  a  good  cook  ;  he 
has  a  pretty  dining-room  there  and  gives  very 
elegant  little  suppers  to  small  parties  of  friends. 
Great  suppers  too  have  been  given  at  the  Lyceum, 
on  the  stage  itself,  in  honor  of  a  long  run,  a  clos- 
ing night,  or  some  distinguished  guest. 

We  have  a  pleasing  picture  of  Irving  and 
Delaunay  havi»g  met  at  a  private  house  after  Mr. 
Irving  had  seen  the  French  actor  play  in  Les 
Caprices  de  Marianne  in  London.  "What  a  Romeo 
he  would  make  !"  Irving  had  exclaimed  on  that 
occasion.  Delaunay,  now,  in  private,  recited  the 
poem  of  Fortunio,  and  Irving  in  return  went 
through  Hood's  poem  of  Eugene  Aram.  But  the 
Englishman  had  the  advantage,  for  he  understood 
French  and  Delaunay  does  not  understand  Eng- 
lish. However  he  was  able  to  appreciate  Mr. 
Irving's  variety  of  tone  and  accent  and  the 
two  actors  are  said  to  have  exchanged  some 
little  souvenirs  —  snuff-box  and  seal,  or  what 
not. 

Mr.  Irving's  sense  of  humor  must  be  keen  ;  it 
lurks  in  the  droop  of  his  eyelids,  and  in  the  angle 
of  his  lips  which  close  with  a  peculiar  absence  of 
curve,  and  he  is  said  to  have  no  small  powers  of 
satire.      His  mannerism  and  eccentricities   of  ac- 


192  HENRY    IRVING. 

cent  lay  him  open,  of  course,  to  imitation  and  , 
mimicry  and  he  has  been  most  successfully  carica- 
tured. In  a  burlesque,  The  Corsican  Brothers  & 
Co.,  which  came  out  when  the  melodrama  was  re- 
vived at  the  Lyceum,  Mr.  Royce  —  now  unfortu- 
nately disabled  from  all  work  by  paralysis  —  gave 
an  imitation  of  him  which  was  almost  too  faithful 
to  deserve  the  name  of  burlesque ;  and  not  long 
since  a  young  actor  mimicked  him  with  much  suc- 
cess in  another  burlesque.  Mr.  Irving,  who  cannot 
take  such  mockery  in  very  good  part,  went  never- 
theless to  see  the  performance.  Not  long  after  he 
met  the  culprit  at  dinner  and  made  himself  so  in- 
finitely agreeable  that  his  new  acquaintance  began 
to  feel  some  qualms  of  conscience,  till  presently, 
when  matters  theatrical  came  under  discussion, 
Mr.  Irving  turned  to  the  younger  man  and  said  in 
a  tone  of  bland  enquiry :  "  And  are  you  an  actor 
too  Mr.  Z  ?" 

Mr.  Irving  will  probably  take  with  him  his 
dresser  Walter,  a  very  important  personage  who 
has  been  in  his  service  many  years.  Walter  feels 
it  a  point  of  honor  to  turn  his  master  out  a  fin- 
ished work  of  art,  every  evening,  but  the  impa- 
tience of  Irving's  temperament  makes  this  a 
matter  of  no  small  difficulty.  "  I  can  never  send 
him  on  to  the  stage  tidy  —  Mr.  Irving  won't  let 


SOME    PERSONAL   DETAILS.  1 93 

me  have  a  chance  of  making  him  tidy,"  is  Walter's 
lament. 

A  very  important  person  is  a  good  dresser ; 
indeed,  it  is  to  him  and  to  the  skilled  carpenter 
that  we  owe  the  relief  of  short  "  waits  "  while 
changes  are  made  between  the  acts  ;  and  without 
a  practised  and  thoughtful  dresser  rapid  changes 
of  character — such  as  Dubosc  and  Lesurques  for 
instance  —  would  be  simply  impossible.  It  is  his 
business  to  have  every  article  of  dress  ready  to  be 
slipped  on  in  proper  order,  and  so  conveniently  held 
that  no  fumbling  or  wriggling  is  needed ;  and  in 
Mr.  Irving's  case,  as  he  is  extremely  short-sighted, 
it  is  Walter's  duty  to  attend  him  to  the  very  verge 
of  the  side-scene  and  at  the  last  moment  utter  the 
warning  words:  "Glasses  Sir  !"  or  the  audience 
might  be  edified  by  seeing  Louis  XL  or  Hamlet 
wearing  pince-nez. 

An  amusing  incident  —  an  unrehearsed  effect 
as  it  has  become  customary  to  call  such  mishaps — 
once  arose  out  of  Irving's  short-sightedness  in  a 
performance  of  lolanthe.  Count  Tristan  has  to 
give  a  talisman  to  the  blind  girl,  and  at  the  very 
moment  when  his  little  "property"  was  most  neces- 
sary to  the  action  of  the  play  he  unluckily  drop- 
ped it.  Mr.  Cooper,  who  was  playing  Sir  Geof- 
frey, was  as  short-sighted  as  his  chief  and  after  a 

13 


194  '  HENRY    IRVING. 

few   moments  of  sotto-voce   dialogue :       "  Pick  it 
up  —  pick  it  up  my  boy." 

"I  can't  see  it,  I  can't  feel  it  — "  The  blind 
Princess  was  forced  to  stoop  and  pick  up  the  in- 
dispensable talisman,  which  she  alone  could  see. 

Mr.  Irving  like  every  really  romantic  actor  has 
admirers,   personal  and   devoted   admirers   of  the 
gentler   sex.      A   correspondent   of  The    TJicatJ'e, 
signing  himself  M.    S.   C,  ends   an   account  of  a 
"country  cousin's"  visit  to   the   Lyceum,  with  a 
description  of  an  incident  illustrating  this  —  how 
three  young  girls  lingered  till  the  house  was  empty 
and  the  curtain  drawn  up,  showing  the  darkened  and 
desolate  stage,  where,  "  amid  that  latter-end  chaos, 
stood  Mr.  Irving,  in  propria  persona^'  with  two  or 
three  persons  to  whom  he  was  talking.      "  There 
he  is  really  himself,''  whispered  one  of  the  three — 
and  we  fancy  we  can  see  him  in  his  great  coat  and 
hat  ?ind  pince-nez  ;  and  it  is  saying  something  for 
the  prestige  of  an  actor  that  it  should   stand  the 
test  of  such  disiUusionment.      "  I  think,"  adds  M. 
S.  C,  "that  Mr.    Irving  is  much  to   be  congratu- 
lated on  having  so  entirely  gained  the  sympathy 
of  the  best  portion  of  creation,  and   his   fair   ad- 
mirers that  they  have  concentrated  their   interest 
on  a  not  less  worthy  hero." 

We  have  heard   a  storj^  of  a  damsel  of  good 


HIS   YOUNG    LADY   ADMIRERS.  I95 

degree  whose  dream  in  life  it  was  to  touch  Henry- 
Irving,  if  it  were  but  the  hem  of  his  garment,  and 
who  to  this  end  was  content  to  wait  outside  the 
theatre  after  a  performance  of  Hamlet  and  open 
his  cab  door.  What  was  her  delight  then  when — ^^ 
unconscious  no  doubt  of  the  fair  one's  rank  in 
life  —  he  rewarded  her  services  with  a  penny 
which  she  ever  after  wore  on  her  watch  chain  ! 
Se  non  e  vero  e  ben  trovato.  On  another  occasion, 
a  party  of  maiden  enthusiasts  were  so  happy  to 
pick  up  "a  glove  dropped  by  the  object  of  their  ad- 
miration—  four  fingers,  a  thumb,  the  palm,  the 
back  —  seven  precious  fragments  to  treasure  in 
their  desks  !  And  who  shall  say  that  hero-wor- 
ship is  dead  ?  The  Hero  as  Actor !  Carlyle 
omitted  him  from  his  classification. 

We  have  done  our  best  to  remedy  the  omis- 
sion. Henry  Irving  is  not,  to  be  sure,  a  hero  to 
us  as  he  is  to  a  Hamlet-stricken  or  Romeo-sick 
damsel.  He  does  not  bewitch  us  altogether  out 
of  our  critical  faculty  ;  but  he  has  stirred  our  feel- 
ings, roused  our  imagination  to  lofty  flights,  our 
intelligence  to  noble  conceptions,  and  our  sympa- 
thy to  genial  warmth.  More  than  this,  we  take 
it  does  not  lie  within  the  actor's  province.  The 
next  step  must  be  to  worthy  deeds,  and  these  lie 
as  far  beyond  his  ken  of  his  audience  as  they  do 

13  * 


196  HENRY    IRVING. 

beyond  that  of  the  preacher.  But,  looking  back 
on  his  own  utterances,  and  reflecting  on  the 
high  position  he  has  always  claimed  for  the  stage, 
we  believe  Mr.  Irving  will  gladly  allow  us  to  rank 
^lim  with  the  preacher,  and  as  one  of  the  high- 
priests  of  a  humanizing  vocation.  "  The  influence 
of  a  great  work  of  art,  indeed,  is  like  that  of  the 
heroes  of  a  past  generation  ;  it  is  seen  through 
the  idealizing  medium  of  imagination.  I  hope 
you  agree  that  this  is  a  better  thing  than  the  in- 
fluence of  a  self-complacent  preacher,  who  offers 
himself  as  an  example  good  to  follow."  So  says 
a  sympathetic  English  writer ;  and  Mr.  Irving 
himself  has  said  :  "  It  is  fair  to  judge  an  art  by 
what  should  be  its  highest  aim."  (Preface  to 
Talma  on  the  Actor's  Art.) 

So,  for  much  wholesome  pleasure,  for  many 
inspiring  thoughts,  and  above  all  for  the  keen  en- 
joyment which  comes  of  enlarged  apprehension 
and  generous  emotion  accept  our  thanks 

Henry  Irving. 


ELLEN   TERRY.  197 


CHAPTER    V. 

ELLEN   TERRY. 
WILLIAM    TERRISS.  THOS.    MEAD. 

Miss  Ellen  Terry  was  born  at  Coventry, 
on  the  27th  of  February,  1847  !  she  first  appeared 
on  the  stage  at  Hull,  almost  as  an  infant,  in  a 
pantomime  in  which  others  of  her  family  were  en- 
gaged, and  at  the  age  of  ten  played  the  child 
Mamillius  in  The  Winter's  Tale,  which  Charles 
Kean  brought  out  as  one  of  a  series  of  Shakespear- 
ian performances  very  beautifully  and  elaborately 
mounted  ;  she  also  played  Arthur  in  King  John, 
in  1858,  with  as  much  success  as  her  elder  sister 
Kate  in  1852. 

When  the  Keans  gave  up  the  management  of 
the  Princess's  and  left  London,  Miss  Ellen  Terry 
was  for  a  time  lost  sight  of  She  probably  went 
to  serve  her  apprenticeship  to  stage-business  un- 
der Mr.  Chute,  for  many  years  the  manager  of  the 
Bath  and  Bristol  theatres.  On  the  i6th  of  Sep- 
tember, 1862,  we  find  her  at  the   Theatre  Royal, 


198  HENRY    IRVING. 

Bristol,  playing  Cupid  in  Brough's  extravaganza 
of  Endymion,  her  sister  Kate  taking  the  part 
of  Diana ;  and  again  she  appeared  in  Perseus  and 
Andromeda,  "  making  the  most  of  the  small  part 
of  Dictys  and  being  most  graceful  and  effective." 
On  December  5th  of  that  year  she  shared  a  bene- 
fit with  her  sister,  and  they  took  their  leave  of  the 
Bristol  public  in  some  lines  written  for  Kate  Terry 
to  speak  on  the  occasion. 

There  is  no  discipline  so  varied  and  incessant 
as  that  of  the  permanent  staff  of  a  provincial 
theatre  and  Miss  Terry  had  profited  by  her  ex- 
perience and  learnt  to  turn  her  exceptional  beauty 
and  talents  to  good  account  when  she  made  her 
debut  in  London,  March,  1863,  as  Gertrude  in  The 
Little  Treasure,  at  the  Haymarket.  To  judge 
from  the  critiques  on  this  performance  Miss 
Terry's  qualifications  for  the  part  were  the  same 
characteristics  as  now,  in  riper  age,  make  her 
Letitia  Hardy  so  dehghtful.  "There  is  nothing 
conventional  or  affected  in  her  performance  ;  the 
young  girl  of  buoyant  spirits,  kindly  heart,  impul- 
sive emotions,  and  somewhat  remiss  education  is 
presented  in  her  natural  shape,  free  and  uncon- 
trolled as  her  long  black  hair."  After  this,  for 
about  ten  months,  from  March,  1863,  till  January, 
1864,    she    played    Hero    in    Much    Ado    About 


ELLEN   TERRY.  199 

Nothing,  Mary  Meredith  in  The  American  Cousin, 
and  other  secondary  parts. 

Miss  Ellen  Terry  married  and  left  the  stage 
while  still  a  mere  child ;  she  was  not  yet  twenty 
when  she  again  came  before  the  public  at  the  end 
of  October,  1867,  in  a  rather  dismal  play,  The 
Double  Marriage,  adapted  from  the  French  by 
Charles  Reade  for  the  New  Queen's  Theatre,  Lon- 
don. She  also  played  Mrs.  Mildmay  in  Still 
Waters,  and  Katharine  in  the  common  stage  ver- 
sion of  the  Taming  of  the  Shrew  known  as  Katha- 
rine and  Petruchio.  It  was  in  this  comedy,  on 
the  26th  of  December,  1867,  that  she  and  Mr. 
Irving  first  acted  together ;  and  we  have  it  on 
good  authority  that  his  foresight  of  his  own 
powers  and  his  judicious  appreciation  of  Miss 
Terry's  talents  —  she  was  but  nineteen  —  led  him 
to  promise  that  when  he  should  become  the 
manap;er  of  a  London  theatre  she  should  be  his 
■  "  leading  lady." 

She  left  the  theatre  in  January,  1868,  and  did 
not  reappear  on  the  London  stage  till  1874  when 
she  returned  to  the  Queen's  as  Philippa  Chester 
in  the  Wandering  Heir.  After  playing  for  a  few 
months  at  Astley's  Theatre  she  went  to  the 
Prince  of  Wales'  where  the  Merchant  of  Venice 
was  rashly  put  upon   the  stage  with  Mr.  Coghlan 


200  HENRY    IRVING. 

as  Shylock  and  with  scarcely  a  redeeming  point 
in  the  performance  but  Ellen  Terry's  Portia. 
This  was  then  and  has  often  since  been  highly 
praised  and,  in  fact,  the  figure,  presence,  and  voice 
of  the  actress  lend  themselves  to  the  impersona- 
tion. The  heiress  of  Belmont  might  have  been 
well  content  to  look  the  part  in  real  life  as  Miss 
Terry  looks  it  on  the  stage.  But  the  conception 
of  the  woman  behind  the  beauty,  grace  and  gor- 
geousness  of  the  Italian  lady  is  not  in  our  opinion 
quite  satisfactory ;  there  is  a  fidgetiness  not  to  say 
flightiness  of  demeanor  now  and  then  in  Miss 
Terry's  Portia  which  would  be  suitable  in  a  woman 
who  assumed  the  lawyer's  dress  for  a  mere  joke 
but  which  is  not  quite  "  of  a  piece"  with  the  lofty 
earnestness  of  Portia's  mind  and  the  gravity  of  her 
purpose.  In  her  doctor's  gown  Miss  Terry 
affected  suitable  dignity,  but  in  other  parts  of  the 
play,  particularly  the  casket  scene,  her  restlessness 
was  fatiguing ;  it  expressed  the  nervousness  of 
curiosity  rather  than  the  anxiety  of  passion. 

"Sumptuous  sweetness,"  is  a  particularly  happy 
phrase  used  by  a  critic  in  Scribner's  Magazine  for 
Miss  Terry's  appearance.  He  undervalues  her 
acting  though  his  judgment  errs  on  the  right  side. 
"  He  would  like,"  he  says,  "  a  little  less  nature  and 
a  little  more  art;"  and  on  the  whole  we  are  of  his 


ELLEN   TERRY.  20I 

mind  —  only,  Miss  Terry's  nature  is  so  winningly 
engaging  that  it  is  ungracious  to  say  so.  But  of 
all  this  our  readers  will,  before  long,  have  the 
pleasure  of  judging  for  themselves. 

Some  of  her  greatest  successes  were  achieved 
at  the  Court  Theatre,  a  small  but  convenient  house 
at  the  south-west  end  of  London.  It  was  here 
that  on  the  29th  of  March,  1878,  an  adaptation  by 
AV.  G.  Wills  of  Goldsmith's  Vicar  of  Wakefield 
was  brought  out  under  the  name  of  Olivia  which, 
owing  mainly  to  Miss  Terry's  delightful  perfor- 
mance of  Olivia  herself,  supported  by  Mr.  Her- 
mann Vezin  and  Mr.  Terriss,  held  the  stage  for  a 
very  long  run  till  Mr.  Irving  secured  her  services 
3.S,  prima  domia  at  the  Lyceum. 

He  showed  his  insight  and  judgment.  The 
change  for  the  better,  so  far  as  he  himself  was 
concerned  must  have  been  inestimable.  Mrs. 
Crowe  and  her  sister  must  have  failed  in  many 
ways  to  satisfy  his  requirements  and  so  far  as  the 
part  of  Ophelia  is  concerned  Miss  Isabel  Bateman 
as  compared  with  Miss  Terry  was  in  every  respect 
wanting.  /*z^;^^//,  January  i  ith,  1879,  says:  "If 
anything  more  intellectually  conceived  or  more 
exquisitely  wrought  out  than  Miss  Terry's  Ophelia 
has  been  seen  on  the  English  stage  in  this  gener- 
ation, it  has  not  been  within  PuncJis  memory." 


202  HENRY    IRVING. 

Since  that  night,  December  30th,  1878,  Mr. 
Irving  and  Miss  Terry  have  not  been  parted.  She 
has  had  intervals  of  much-needed  rest  when  he 
has  produced  plays  in  which  her  appearance  was 
not  required,  but  she  has  not  acted  elsewhere  and 
it  is  to  be  hoped  that  an  alliance  so  extraordi- 
narily favorable  to  the  interests  of  art — and,  we 
may  add  a  hope,  to  their  well-earned  advantage 
and  profit — may  continue  for  many  years. 

There  are  parts  still  for  them  to  act  together. 
Lear  and  Cordelia  at  once  suggest  themselves, 
Malvolio  and  Viola,  Joseph  Surface  and  Lady 
Teazle,  nay,  and  why  not  Henri  de  Lagardere  and 
Blanche  deNevers? — for  The  Duke' s  Motto  is  one 
of  the  most  delightful  melodramas  ever  played  on 
the  English  stage.  The  hero's  part  is  captivating 
in  that  delicately  amorous  way  which  is  wonder- 
fully sympathetic  to  Mr.  Irving,  if  we  may  judge 
from  his  acting  in  the  third  act  of  Hamlet  and  in 
the  supper  scene  in  The  Corsican  Brothers,  where 
he  expresses  the  tender  and  suppressed  phase  of 
love  in  a  captivating  manner. 

Of  all  the  parts  Miss  Terry  has  played  with 
Mr.  Irving  Ophelia  is  the  most  pathetic,  Beatrice 
the  most  brilliant.  These  two  extremes  of  the 
scale  of  feeling  are  what  she  deals  with  best.  In 
the  first  act  of  "  The  Cup,''  where  again  what  may 


ELLEN    TERRY.  203 

be  called  domestic  pathos  is  the  ruling  sentiment, 
her  acting  was  exquisite,  her  song  simply  heart- 
breaking without  any  rational  cause  for  the  emo- 
tion it  roused.  In  Letitia  Hardy  again,  where 
airy  spirits  and  judicious  impertinence  are  required 
she  is  perfectly  fascinating.  But  Miss  Terry  is 
not  a  tragedy  queen,  and  if  she  cares  to  keep  the 
hearts  she  has  won  she  will  still  play  such  parts 
as  she  is  mistress  of — facile  princeps. 

We  shall  see  her  here  as  Ophelia,  as  Henrietta 
Maria,  as  Letitia  Hardy,  Portia,  Ruth  (Eugene 
Aram),  Jeanette  (  The  Lyon's  Mail),  and  above  all 
as  Beatrice — a  part,  which  if  Shakespeare  had  but 
seen  her  play  it,  he  might  have  believed  he  had 
written  for  her.  In  the  lighter  scenes  she  is  the 
very  woman  Benedick  loved  —  the  very  woman 
perhaps  that  Shakespeare  himself  loved,  who 
knows?  In  the  church  scene  she  is  tragical  — 
just  as  tragical  as  Beatrice  and  Miss  Terry  ought 
ever  to  be.  All  is  admirable  from  beginning  to 
end. 

Miss  Terry  is  rarely  heard  as  a  reciter  but  her 
singularly  pathetic  voice  —  voix  voilee  even  when 
she  is  at  her  gayest  —  is  heard  to  great  advantage 
in  this  kind  of  monologue.  In  the  course  of  a 
miscellaneous  entertainment  given,  after  Charles  I., 
for  Mr.  Irving's  benefit  in  August,  1880.  she   re- 


204  HENRY   IRVING. 

cited  a  poem  by  Lewis,  The  Captive  ;  "  so  admir- 
able, so  full  of  tragic  feeling,  of  skill  in  varied 
intonation,  of  art  to  make  one  forget  the  silliness 
of  the  words  in  the  emotion  with  which  she  charged 
them,  that  one  could  hardly  regret  that  such  rub- 
bish should  have  been  chosen."  In  truth,  as  she 
repeated  them  Miss  Terry  was  the  poet ;  she  in- 
terpreted the  situation  which  the  author  had  been 
unable  to  find  fitting  expression  for :  that  of  a 
sane  woman  imprisoned  as  a  mad  woman  by  her 
husband  and  at  last  really  losing  her  reason  in 
despair. 

Mr.   William  Terriss. 

T^XQ  jeune  premier,  for  such  he  is  practically,  who 
now  plays  second  to  Mr.  Irving  in  almost  every 
piece  he  puts  on  the  stage,  is  a  gentleman  by 
birth  and  education  and  was  brought  up  to  the 
Navy.  Bitten,  however  by  the  insidious  demon 
which  leaves  stage  mania  in  the  blood,  at  the  age 
of  twenty  he  entered  the  dramatic  profession,  act- 
ing first  at  Birmingham  in  1869.  In  London,  he 
was  at  first  a  member  of  the  Bancrofts'  company 
at  the  Prince  of  Wales'  ;  then  he  went  to  Drury 
Lane,  and  to  the  Strand,  where  he  played  Dori- 
court  in    The  Belle's  Stratagem  through  a   very 


WILLIAM    TERRISS.  205 

long  run.  His  first  very  successful  effort  however, 
as  a  work  of  art,  was  as  Squire  Thornhill  in  Wills' 
play  of  Olivia,  in  which  Miss  Terry  also  made 
her  mark.  He  did  not  join  the  Lyceum  staff  till 
1880,  when  he  played  Chateau  Renaud  in  The 
Corsicari  Brothers.  Mr.  Terriss  is  careful,  con- 
scientious and,  we  should  imagine,  a  very  capital 
and  trustworthy  second  to  act  with  ;  his  indepen- 
dence is  probably  not  very  pronounced,  and  he 
acts  like  a  man  who  relies  enormously  on  habit, 
whose  stage-business  —  once  thoroughly  mastered 
in  rehearsal  —  has  become  part  of  the  role  to  him 
forever  after.  He  is  not  an  imaginative  actor  and 
his  voice  is  somewhat  rigid  and  unsympathetic  ; 
and  yet  he  is  much  more  than  a  mere  machine, 
for  he  has  taste  and  intelligence.  His  play  is  per- 
haps less  mechanical  than  it  sometimes  appears  by 
contrast  with  the  impulsive  vehemence  of  his 
chief;  it  is  possible  too  that  his  own  discretion 
keeps  his  energies  at  bay,  for  no  stage  on  earth 
could  hold  a  second  Irving  however  far  he  might 
laer  behind  the  first. 


*t> 


Mr.  Thomas  Mead. 

One  of  the  actors  who  appeared  at  the  Lyceum 
theatre  Sunderland   on   the   opening   night,  when 


206  HENRY    IRVING. 

Henry  Irving  first  appeared  as  a  professional  actor, 
was  "Tom.  Mead,"  now  an  honorably  distinguished 
member  of  Mr.  Irving's  company.    This  excellent 
and    trustworthy   artist  was  born   at    Cambridge 
(England)  in  1819,  and  trained  in  the  best  tradi- 
tions of  the  old  school — a  school  somewhat  pon- 
derous and  over-emphatic  but  careful  in  its  reading, 
accurate  in  its  pronunciation  and  serious,  though 
far  from  subtle,  in  the  interpretation  and  delivery 
of  blank  verse.   When  we  hear  Mr.  Mead  give  out 
the  speech  of  the  Ghost  in  Hamlet,  or  of  the  friar 
in  MiicJi  Ado  About  Nothing,  in  his  full  deliberate 
tones  we  hear  the  echo  —  perhaps  the  last  echo  — 
of  the  voices  of  a  former  generation  of  actors  whose 
method    is    disappearing    under    the    "  aesthetic" 
reaction  of   our  day.      Naturalism   is   the  watch- 
word   of    the     modern     aesthetic — a     naturalism 
which,  when  pushed  to  excess,  is  the  bane  of  dig- 
nity and  the  ruin  of  style ;   and  though  the  impa- 
tience   of    the   juvenile    play-goer    might    prove 
refractory  if  this  grave  elocution  were   applied  to 
any  less  solemn  parts   than   those   Mr.  Mead   now 
fills,  we  would  fain  point  out  that   it   has   unmis- 
takably that  stamp  of  style  which  is  as  stately  as 
it  is  now  rare.     We  are  thankful  not  to  be  obliged 
to  criticise  Mr.  Mead  in  light  parts,  it  might  be  a 
trial  to  sit  through   them  ;  but  many  actors,  who 


THOS.    MEAD.  20/ 

rank  higher  than  he  now  does  in  popular  favor, 
might  with  advantage  have  an  infusion  of  his  com- 
plaint. He  often  forces  rhythm  to  excess,  no 
doubt,  sometimes  to  the  extent  of  misreading ; 
still,  such  as  he  is,  mark  him  with  respect  —  he  is 
the  last  of  the  old  English  type  of  actors. 

He  first  acted  at  Devonport  in  1841,  and  after- 
wards worked  in  the  north  of  England,  making* 
himself  generally  useful,  as  was  then  the  custom  ; 
it  was  not  till  1 848  that  he  appeared  in  London, 
and  then  at  one  of  the  less  fashionable  theatres,  as 
Sir  Giles  Overreach.  He  first  became  known  to 
the  "  West-end  "  public  in  1852  when  he  took  an 
engagement  at  Drury  Lane  and  played  leading 
parts  for  some  years  there,  and  afterwards  at  the 
St.  James.  He  was  thought  well  enough  of  to  be 
engaged  as  a  "  star"  in  various  provincial  theatres, 
and  Mr.  Irving  has  many  times  sjipported  him  at 
Sunderland,  Edinburgh,  and  Manchester. 

There  can  be  no  clearer  evidence  of  the 
strength  of  the  reaction  in  art  that  has  charac- 
terized the  last  decade  than  the  relative  position 
the  two  actors  now  stand  in  —  nor  can  there  be 
any  better  proof  of  the  magnanimity  of  their 
minds  and  the  soundness  of  their  natures,  than 
the  faithful  alliance  of  the  two  men. 


209 


INDEX 


Addison,  Mr.,  actor,  47. 

Anderson,  Mary,  Irving's  allu- 
sion to  her  in  his  farewell  ad- 
dress to  the  audience  at  Ly- 
ceum Theatre,  July  28th,  1883, 

147- 
Anson,  Mr.,  actor,  35. 
Art,  changes  in  ideal  of  beauty,  3. 
Atkins,  Mrs.,  10. 

Barrett,  Lawrence,  Irving's  al- 
lusion to  him  in  his  farewell 
address  to  the  audience  at  Ly- 
ceum Theatre,  July  28th,  1883, 

147- 

Bateman,  H.  L.,  46,59;  his  pro- 
duction of  Philip,  65 ;  his 
death,  78. 

Bateman,  Miss,  26,  51,  78,  85,  97. 

Bateman,  Miss  Isabel,  47,  55,  70, 
86,  97,  183. 

Bateman,  Mrs.,  her  management 
of  Lyceum  Theatre,  95  ;  her 
death,  96. 

Belford,  Wm.,  128. 

Belle's  Stratagem,  the,  36,  116. 

Bellew,  Kyrle.  98. 

Bells,  the,  48,  49,  50,  52. 

Belmore,  Mr.,  actor,  47. 

Berlioz,  4. 


Betterton,  32,  72. 

Bland,  Harcourt,  17. 

Blough,  Lionel.  42. 

Booth,  Edwin,  22,  78  ;  his  en- 
gagement at  Lyceum,  118; 
his  lago,  122;  his  Othello,  127. 

Booth,  the  elder,  120. 

Boucicault,  Dion,  33;  Hunted 
Down,  37;  Formosa,  43; 
Louis  XL,  92. 

Brooke,  G.  V.,  71. 

Brougham,  John,  Playing  with 
Fire,  22  ;  Flies  in  the  Web,  23. 

Buckstone,  9. 

Burbage,  32. 

Caine,  J.  H.,  criticisms  on 
Richard  III.  and  Macbeth,  88. 

Calvert,  23,  28. 

Case,  Comyns,  .  criticisms,  on 
lolanthe,  no;  Cup,  113. 

Champagne,  Philippe,  his  por- 
trait of  Richelieu,  58. 

Clark,  J.  S.,  39. 

Coghlan,  103. 

Cook,  Dutton,  cridcisms,  Shy- 
lock,  108 ;  Corsican  Brothers, 
112;  Doricourt,  117;  lago, 
123;  Philip,  153;  Louis  XL, 
T54,  162. 


n 


2IO 


INDEX, 


Cooke,  Robert,  28. 

Creswick,  76. 

Crosby  House,  ig. 

Cup,  the,  the  production  of,  113. 

Cushman,  Charlotte,  78. 

Davenport  Bros.,    burlesque   of 

27,  28. 
Davis,  59. 
Day,  Philip,  27,  28. 
Dickens,  Charles,  48. 
Dillon,  13,  16. 

Elliston,  139. 

Emerson,  4. 

Eugene  Aram,  play  of,  56. 

Faucit,  Helen,   9,   86,   135,   137. 
Fechter,  Charles,  his  Hamlet,  70. 
Florence,  Mr.  and  Mrs.,  22. 
Forbes,  Norman,  102. 

Garrick,  32,  72,  137,  173. 
Genius,  men  of,  their  influence 

on  their  times,  etc.,  3. 
Gloster,    Richard   Duke  of,    his 

residence,  19. 
Glyn,  Miss,  8,  9,  136. 

Hamlet,  25,  70,  81,  98. 
Harris,  Augustus,  14,  17. 
Herbert,  Miss,  21,36. 
Honey,  Mr.,  44. 

Irving,  Henry,  a  man  of  his  time, 
4 ;  his  early  life,  7 ;  first  appear- 
ance on  any  stage,  8  ;  at  Edin- 
burgh, 1857,  9;  at  London, 
1859, 17;  at  Manchester,  1860- 
'64,  20 ;  plays  with  Chas. 
Mathews,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Flor- 


ence, and  Edwin  Booth,  22; 
plays  with  Sothern,  24  ;  first 
appearance  in  Hamlet,  1864, 
25;  at  Liverpool,  1866,  29;  his 
apprenticeship  as  an  actor,  31 ; 
his  naturalism,  35 ;  first  appear- 
ance in  London,  1866,  36 ;  vari- 
ous parts,  1867,  39 ;  a  Lan- 
cashire Lass,  1868,  41 ;  Drury 
Lane  Theatre,  1869,43  ;  Digby 
Grant,  1870,  45  ;  Landry  Bar- 
beau,  1870,  47;  Mathias,  1871, 
49;  Charles  I.,  1872,  53; 
Eugene  Aram,  1873,56;  Rich- 
elieu, 1873,  58 ;  Philip,  1874, 
65;  Charles  I.  revived,  1874, 
68;  Hamlet,  i874-'75,  70;  Mac- 
beth, 1875,79;  Othello,  1876, 
81;  King  Philip  of  Spain,  1876, 
85;  Richard  HI.,  1877,  87;  Le- 
surques  and  Dubosc,  1877, 
89;  Louis  XL,  1878,  91;  Van- 
derdecken,  1878,  93  ;  becomes 
manager  of  the  Lyceum, 
95;  Claude  Melnotte,  1879,98; 
benefit,  1879, 100;  Iron  Chest, 
1879,  103 ;  Shylock,  1879, 
104;  lolanthe,  1880,  no;  Cor- 
sican  Brothers,  1880,  in  ;  The 
Cup,  1881,  113;  The  Belle's 
Stratagem,  1881,  115;  Booth 
and  Irving,  1881,  118;  Othello 
and  lago,  1881,  121 ;  The  Two 
Roses,  1881,  129;  Romeo  and 
Juliet,  1882,  129 ;  plans  for 
America,  1882, 134  ;  Much  Ado 
About  Nothing,  1882,  136 ; 
revivals,    1883,    143 ;     dinner, 


INDEX, 


211 


July,  1883,  14S ;  his  individu- 
ality, 148  ;  his  features,  149 ;  his 
expression,  150;  his  method, 
153  ;  his  mannerisms,  156  ;  his 
stage-business,  161 ;  his  style, 
163  ;  as  a  stage-manager,  167  ; 
his  advocacy  of  Theatre,  171  ; 
his  speeches  and  writings,  175  ; 
the  true  school  of  dramatic  art, 
177;  his  leading  position,  183; 
provincial  tours,  185  ;  his  acts 
of  liberality,  186;  his  personal 
influence,  189;  in  private,  190  ; 
some  personal  details,  192. 

James,  44. 
Jefferson,  Joseph,  78. 
Johnson,  8. 
Jones,  D.  H.,  22. 
Jones,  Ersser,  13. 

Kean,  Charles,  17,  64;  his  Ham- 
let, 70 ;  his  Louis  XL,  91,  m, 
132,   173, 

Kean,  Mrs.  Charles,  136. 

Kean,  Edmund,  32,  82,  126; 
Hazlitt's  remarks  on  his 
Romeo,  131. 

Keeley,  Louise,  10. 

Kemble,  137,  173. 

King,  T.  C,  10. 

Knowles,  Sheridan,  on  Irving's 
Macbeth,  79. 

Lady  of  Lyons,  16,  98. 
Lewis,  Leopold,  49. 
Lewis,  the  actor,  139. 
Louis  XL,  play  of,  28  91. 
Loveday,  168. 


Lyons,  E.  D.,  9,  10,  13. 
Lyons,  Edmund,  9. 
Lyons  Mail,  the,  89. 
Lyons,  Robert  C,  9. 

Macbeth,  79. 

Maccabe,  Fred.,  27,  28. 

Macready,  60,  64,  70,  99,  137. 

Mathews,  Charles,  9,  22,  29. 

Mead,  Thomas,  first  acquain- 
tance with  Irving,  8,9;  as  Le- 
surques/^rtf,  90 ;  his  style,  206. 

Melville,  George,  12, 13,  18. 

Merchant  of  Venice,  103. 

Miles,  Sophie,  12. 

Montague,  44,  45. 

Montgomery,  Walter,  23,  24,  26. 

More,  Sir  Thomas,  his  residence 
at  Crosby  House,  19. 

Much  Ado  About  Nothing,  104, 
136. 

Murray,  Gaston,  48. 

Nelson,  John,  28. 
Nicoll,  Miss,  10. 

Othello,  81. 

Paganini,  34. 

Pembroke,  Countess  of,  her  resi- 
dence at  Crosby  House,  19. 
Phelps,  S.  H.,  9,  32,  64,  67. 
Philip,  drama  of,  65. 
Pickwick,  Albery's,  47,  48. 
Pinero.  H.  W.  98. 
Prince  of  Wales,  15. 

Queen  Mary,  play  of,  85. 


14  "" 


212 


INDEX. 


Reece,    Robert,   on    stage-man- 
agement, 167. 
Reeves,  Sims,  145,  147. 
Richard  III.,  87. 
Richelieu,  58. 
Romeo  and  JiiHet,  129. 

Sala,  G.  A.,  criticisms,  etc  ,  131, 

134.  135.  138- 
Savile,  Kate,  17. 
Scott,  Clement,  on  Irving's  Dori- 

court,  117. 
Sedgwick,  Amy,  43. 
Shakespeare,  9,  32,  48. 
Sims,  Henrietta,  10. 
Sinclair,  G.  F.,  26. 
Smythson,  G.,  13. 
Sothern,  24. 
Spencer,  Sir  John,  his  residence 

at  Crosby  House,  19. 
Starring  System,  22,  29. 
Stirling,  10. 
Stoker,  Bram,  168. 
Swinburne,  4. 
Symonds,   John  Addington,  on 

art,  4. 

Tennyson,  Alfred,  Queen  Mary, 

85  ;   The  Cup,  113. 
Terriss,  William,  his  career,  204. 
Terry,    Ellen,    37,    40,    55;    as 


Ophelia,  77;  joins  the  Lyceum 
Company,  96 ;  as  Portia,  103, 
107;  as  lolanthe,  no;  as  Cam- 
ma,  115 ;  as  Letitia  Hardy,  118; 
as  Juliet,  131 ;  as  Beatrice,  136  ; 
sketch  of  her  life,  197. 

Terry,  Florence,  103. 

The  True  School  of  Dramatic 
Art,  177. 

Thorne,  44. 

Toole,  J.  L.,  II,  40,  41,  42,  43, 
127,  14s,  147. 

Two  Roses,  Albery's,  44,  51, 
128. 

Vanderdecken ,  the  Fly  in  g  Dutch- 

man,  93. 
Vezin,  Herman,  64,  78. 

Wagner,  4. 

Wallack,  71,  137. 

Wedmore,  Frederick,  criticisms, 
on  Irving's  Digby  Grant,  44; 
Richelieu,  60,  63,  64;  Charles 
I.,  68;  Hamlet,  75;  Othello, 
85  ;  Romeo,  130  ;  on  long  runs, 
180. 

Whistler,  4. 

Wigan,  Alfred,  9,  41,  in. 

Wigan,  Mrs.,  9. 

Wyndham,  R.  H.,  8,  10,  12. 


ADVERTISEMENTS 


A    TRAGEDY     AT     CONSTANTINOPLE.  —  By 

LiCila-liailOlini,  translated  from  the  French,  with  notes, 
by  Geii.  K.  E.  Colston,  one  vol.  pa.,  5octs.  do.,  gocts. 

"The  romance  has  for  its  gromidwork  the  mysterious  and 
fascinating  subject  of  harem  life  in  the  East,  and  is  founded  on 
facts.  The  tragedy  is  one  no  less  thrilling  in  culmination  than 
the  violent  ending  of  the  Sultan  Abdul-Aziz,  which  startled  the 
world  only  a  few  years  ago.  The  author  works  her  way  to  this 
climax  by  a  narrative  almost  as  strange  as  a  chapter  out  of  the 
Arabian  Nights.  Incidentally  it  falls  to  her  lot  to  reveal  the 
secrets  of  the  harems  so  jealously  guarded  from  observation.  She 
seems  to  have  enjoyed  inside  views  of  those  shrouded  places  to 
an  extent  rare  if  not  unprecedented  among  persons  not  actually 
inmates  of  them.  At  all  events  no  work  surpasses  this  in  its  dis- 
closures of  the  deep  shadows  of  that  female  slavery  which  remains 
the  foulest  blot  upon  the  domestic  institutions  of  Turkey.  The 
Empress  Eugenie,  Midhat-Pasha,  Reshid-Pasha,  Hassan-Bey, 
and  other  personages  of  rank  and  power  in  their  day,  are  among 
the  characters  who  play  their  part  in  this  extraordinary  book. 
General  R.  E.  Colston,  long  identified  with  the  Egyptian  Army, 
is  the  translator,  and  supplies  a  preface  so  good  that  it  should  not 
be  skipped." — The  Journal  of  Commerce,  New  York. 

"  It  is  a  translation  from  the  French  by  Leila-Hanoum,  by- 
Gen.  R.  E.  Colston,  late  Bey  on  the  General  Staff,  Egyptian 
Army,  who  thinks  (and  we  agree  with  him)  that  it  will  give  the 
readers  a  more  complete  idea  of  the  Mussulman  than  he  could 
obtain  by  wading  through  volumes  of  mere  description.  What 
the  novels  of  Georg  Ebers  are  to  the  life  of  ancient  Egypt  and 
Rome,  and  the  stories  of  Galdos  are  to  the  life  of  Spain,  the 
Tragedy  in  the  Imperial  Harem  is  to  the  life  of  Turkey,  as  reveal- 
ed in  the  luxuriant,  indolent  idleness  of  the  Sultan  and  in  the  end- 
less intrigues  of  his  Pashas  and  Beys,  and  as  concealed  (at  least 
from  the  eye  of  the  Giaour)  in  the  stifling  recesses  of  the  seragho. 
It  is  a  story  of  love  and  vengeance,  the  love  and  the  vengeance  of 
harem  life  running  like  a  black  thread  through  the  tawdry  splendor 
of  two  generations,  and  shooting  its  stains  along  the  web  and 
woof  of  other  lives  than  those  of  the  sufferers.  If  it  reminds  us 
of  anything,  it  is  of  the  early  romantic  work  of  Byron,  who  was 
the  first  Englishman  whom  the  East  really  inspired,  and  who 
painted  with  singular  poetic  power  the  dark  unbridled  passion  of 
its  souls  of  fire— "  with  whom  revenge  was  virtue."  We  have  in 
the  Tragedy  in  the  Imperial  Harem  a  prose-poem  of  striking  in- 
terest, and  of  permanent  value,  as  a  picture  of  Eastern  manners." 
—  T/ie  Mail  and  Express,  New  York. 

William  S.  Gottsberger,  Publisher,  New  York. 


A  BOOK  ABOUT  ROSES.  — //<'7.'  to  Grow  and  Shcrw 
Them!  By  S.  lleyiioltls  Hole,  in  one  volume.  Paper, 
50  cts.     Cloth,  90  cts. 

"There  is  a  June  fragrance  about  this  little  book  that  is  par- 
ticularly refreshing,  now  that  we  are  on  the  edge  — very  ragged 
edge,  to  be  sure  —  of  summer.  They  say  the  flowers  know  those 
who  love  them,  and  come  forth  only  at  their  bidding.  If  this  be 
so,  surely  Mr.  Hole  should  be  a  successful  cultivator,  as  he  is  cer- 
tainly an  entertaining  writer  on  a  subject  in  which  he  has  long 
been  a  recognized  authority.  This  is  the  seventh  edition  of  his 
'  Book  About  Roses  '  that  has  been  called  for,  and  in  responding 
to  the  demand  the  happy  author  contributes  some  of  the  latest  re- 
sults of  his  experience,  which  will  be  gratefully  received  by  all 
rosarians.  Mr.  Hole  is  an  enthusiast,  and  he  communicates  much 
of  that  quality  to  his  pages.  It  is  impossible  to  read  long  in  this 
charming  volume  without  becoming  impressed  with  a  profound 
conviction  that  a  rose  is  the  most  perfect  thing  in  creation.  Aside 
from  its  value  as  a  guide  to  cultivators,  whether  professional  or 
amateur,  the  work  possesses  a  rare  fascination,  that  jiartly  belongs 
to  the  subject  and  partly  to  its  happy  manner  of  treatment.  There 
is  a  vein  of  playful  humor  in  Mr.  Hole's  writing  that  rarely  de- 
generates into  'flippancy,  and  occasionally  a  little  flight  of  senti- 
mentalism  that  accords  well  with  his  theme,  mingling  agreeably 
enough  with  the  purely  scientific  disquisitions  like  a  wholesome 
perfume,  which  is  happily  not  a  hot-house,  but  an  out-of-door  one. 
We  cordially  commend  this  book  to  all  who  are  interested  in  the 
cultivation  of  the  (lueen  of  flowers."— C/^/ra^fi-  Evening  Journal. 

"The  whole  volume  teems  with  encouraging  data  and  statistics  ; 
and,  while  it  is  intensely  practical,  it  will  interest  general  readers 
by  an  unfiling  vivacity,  which  supplies  garnish  and  ornament  to 
the  array  of  facts,  and  furnishes  'ana'  in  such  rich  profusion  that 
one  might  do  worse  than  lay  by  many  of  Mr.  Hole's  good  stories 
for  future  table-talk." — Saturday  Revinu. 

"■  It  is  the  production  of  a  man  who  boasts  of  thirty  'all  Eng- 
land' cups,  v.'hose  Roses  are  always  looked  for  anxiously  at 
flower-shows,  who  took  the  lion's  share  in  originating  the  first 
Rose- Show  pnr  et  simple,  whose  assistance  as  judge  or  amicus 
curiae  is  alu-ays  courted  at  such  exhibitions.  Such  a  man  '  ought 
to  have  something  to  say  worth  hearing  to  those  who  love  the 
Rose,'  and  he  has  said  it." — Gardeners'  Chronicle. 

"A  very  captivating  book,  containing  a  great  deal  of  valuable 
information  about  the  "Rose  and  its  culture,  given  in  a  style  which 
can  not  fail  to  please." — Journal  of  Horticulture. 

William  S.  Gottsberger,  Publisher,  Netv  York. 


QUINTUS  CLAUDIUS.  — A  Romance  of  Imperial  Rome, 
by  Ernst  Eckstein,  from  the  German  by  Clara  Bell,  in 
two  vols.      Paper,  $  I.  GO.     Cloth,  $1.75. 

"We  owe  to  Eckstein  the  brilliant  romance  of  '  Quintus 
Claudius,'  which  Clara  Bell  has  done  well  to  translate  for  us,  for 
it  is  worthy  of  place  beside  the  Emperor  of  Ebers  and  the  Aspasia 
of  Hamerling.  It  is  a  story  of  Rome  in  the  reign  of  Domitian, 
and  the  most  noted  characters  of  the  time  figure  in  its  pages, 
which  are  a  series  of  picturesque  descriptions  of  Roman  life  and 
manners  in  the  imperial  city,  and  in  those  luxurious  retreats  at 
Baiae  and  elsewhere  to  which  the  wealthy  Romans  used  to  retreat 
from  the  heats  of  summer.  It  is  full  of  stirring  scenes  in  the 
streets,  in  the  palaces,  in  the  temples,  and  in  the  amphitheatre, 
and  the  actors  therein  represent  every  phase  of  Roman  character, 
from  the  treacherous  and  cowardly  Domitian  and  the  vile  Domitia 
down  to  the  secret  gatherings  of  the  new  sect  and  their  exit  from 
life  in  the  blood-soaked  sands  of  the  arena,  where  they  were  torn 
in  pieces  by  the  beasts  of  the  desert.  The  life  and  the  manners 
of  all  classes  at  this  period  were  never  painted  with  a  bolder 
pencil  than  by  Eckstein  in  this  masterly  romance,  which  displays 
as  much  scholarship  as  invention."— /l/<7// (7«^^  Express,  N.   V. 

"  These  neat  volumes  contain  a  story  first  published  in  German. 
It  is  written  in  that  style  which  Ebers  has  cultivated  so  success- 
fully. The  place  is  Rome  ;  the  time,  that  of  Domitian  at  the  end 
of  the  first  century.  The  very  careful  study  of  historical  data,  is 
evident  from  the  notes  at  tlie  foot  of  nearly  every  page.  The 
author  attempted  the  difi'icult  task  of  presenting  in  a  single  story 
the  whole  life  of  Rome,  the  intrigues  of  that  day  which  compassed 
the  overthrow  of  Domitian,  and  the  deep  fervor  and  terrible  trials 
of  the  Christians  in  the  last  of  the  general  persecutions.  _  The 
court,  the  army,  the  amphitheatre,  the  catacombs,  the  evil  and 
the  good  of  Roman  manhood  and  womanhood  —  all  are  here. 
And  the  work  is  done  with  power  and  success.  It  is  a  book  for 
every  Christian  and  for  every  student,  a  book  of  lasting  value, 
bringing  more  than  one  nation  under  obligation  to  its  author." — 
iV^TfT  Jerusalem  Magazine,  Boston,  Mass. 

''A  new  Roniance  of  Ancient  Times/  The  success  of  Ernst 
Eckstein's  new  novel,  'Quintus  Claudius,'  which  recently  ap- 
peared in  Vienna,  may  fairly  be  called  phenomenal,  critics  and  the 
public  unite  in  praising  the  w'or]^."— Grazer  Morgenpost. 

"  -Quintus  Claudius'  is  a  finished  work  of  art,  capable  of 
bearing  any  analysis,  a  literary  production  teeming  with  instruc- 
tion and  interest,  full  of  plastic  forms,  and  rich  in  the  most  dra- 
matic changes  of  mood."— Pester  Lloyd. 

V/illiam  S:  Gottsberger,  Publisher,  New  York. 


ASP  ASIA.  —  A  Koniance,  \>y  I{ol)01*t  HiJini'l'linj^-,  from 
the  Gei-.i^.an  by  Mary  J.  Saftbrd,  in  two  vols.  Paper,  $i.oo. 
Cloth,  $1.75. 


"  We  have  read  his  work  conscientiously,  and,  we  confess,  with 
profit.  Never  have  we  had  so  clear  an  insight  into  the  manners, 
thought.^,  and  feelings  of  the  ancient  Greeks.  No  study  has  made 
us  so  familiar  witli  the  age  of  Pericles.  We  recognize  throughout 
that  the  author  is  master  of  the  period  of  which  he  treats.  Moi-e- 
over,  looking  back  upon  the  work  from  the  end  to  the  beginning, 
Ave  clearly  perceive  in  it  a  complete  unity  of  purpose  not  at  all 
e\ident  during  the  reading." 

"  Hamerling's  Aspasia,  herself  the  most  beautiful  woman  in 
all  Hellas,  is  the  apostle  of  beauty  and  of  joyousness,  the  im- 
placable enemy  of  all  that  is  stern  and  harsh  in  life.  Unfortunately, 
morality  is  stern,  and  had  no  place  among  Aspasia's  doctrines. 
This  ugly  fact,  Landor  has  thrust  as  far  into  the  backgrountl  a.s 
possible.  Ilamerling  obtrudes  it.  He  does  not  moralize,  lie 
neither  condemns  nor  praises;  but  like  a  fate,  silent,  ]iassionless, 
and  resistless,  he  carries  the  story  along,  allows  the  sunshine  for 
a  time  to  silver  the  turbid  stream,  the  butterflies  and  gnats  to  flut- 
ter above  it  in  rainbow  tints,  and  then  remorselessly  draws  over 
the  landscape  gray  twilight.  He  but  follows  the  course  of 
history;  yet  the  absolute  pitilessness  with  Mhich  he  does  it  is 
almost  terrible." — Extracts  frovi  J^cvici:.'  in  Yale  Literary 
Magazine. 

"  No  more  beautiful  chapter  can  be  found  in  any  book  of  this 
age  than  that  in  which  Pericles  and  Aspasia  are  described  as  visit- 
ing the  poet  Sophocles  in  the  garden  on  the  bank  of  the  Cephis- 
.sus." —  Utiea  Morning  Herald. 


'i> 


"  It  is  one  of  the  great  excellencies  of  this  romance,  this  lofty 
.song  of  the  genius  of  the  Greeks,  that  it  is  composed  with  perfect 
artistic  symmetry  in  the  treatment  of  the  different  parts,  and  from 
the  first  word  to  the  last  is  thoroughly  harmonious  in  tone  and 
coloring.  Therefore,  in  'Aspasia,' we  are  given  a  book,  which 
could  only  proceed  from  the  union  of  an  artistic  nature  and  a 
thoughtful  mind  —  a  book  that  does  not  depict  fiery  passions  in 
dramatic  conflict,  but  with  dignified  composure,  leads  the  conflict 
therein  described  to  the  final  catastrophe." — Allge»ieiiie  Zritiiiig. 
<Augsburg). 

Williavi  S.  Gottsbcrgcr,  Publisher,  Ncxv  York. 


A  WOiiD,  ONLY  A  WORD.— A  Romance,  'nyGeorg" 
Ebers,  from  the  German  by  Ivlary  J.  Safford,  in  one  voL 
Paper,  50  cts.     Cloth,  90  cts. 

"  One  never  sits  down  to  read  a  novel  of  Georg  Ebers'  with- 
out the  certainty  of  being  entertained  by  it,  and  at  the  same  time 
instructed  about  the  period  that  it  depicts.  'A  Word,  Only  a 
Word,'  which  Miss  Mary  J.  Safford  has  translated,  is  a  story  of 
folk-life  in  the  Black  Forest,  of  soldier-life  in  the  countries  about, 
and  of  art-life  in  Spain  and  the  Netherlands.  Out  of  these  ele- 
ments and  the  religious  persecutions  of  the  time  when  the  Jewish 
race  was  under  the  ban  everywhere,  he  has  constructed  a  plot  of 
uncommon  interest  and  vitality,  abounding  in  stirring  scenes,  now 
in  tents  where  poor  men  lie,  and  now  in  the  abodes  of  the  great, 
notably  in  the  palace  of  the  Spanish  king,  and  has  cast  over  the 
whole  an  air  of  reality  which  is  delightful.  The  characters  are 
skilfully  elaborated,  particulaily  the  character  of  the  hero  Ulrich, 
who,  in  his  strength  and  v/eakness,  is  a  realized  ideal  of  the  artist 
of  the  period.  There  is  a  v,arm,  human  interest  throughout,  and 
a  pervading  sense  of  the  picturesque  that  is  inseparable  from  all 
that  Ebers  writes.  'A  Word,  Only  a  Word,'  is  the  best  family 
romantic  story  that  we  have  read  for  a  long  \xca.e..'"— The  Mail 
and  Express,  Neio  York. 

THE  BUKUOMASTER'S  WIFE.— A  Romance,  by 
Georg"  Ebers,  from  the  German  by  Mary  J.  Safford,  in 
one  vol.      Paper,  50  cts.     Cloth,  75  cts. 

"  In  this  romance  Dr.  Ebers  has  chosen  one  of  the  most 
glorious  passages  in  the  history  of  the  Netherlands  for  tlie  centre 
of  his  plot.  The  scene  opens  in  the  year  1574,  with  the  defeat 
and  death  of  Prince  Louis  of  Nassau  at  the  hands  of  Raguesenes 
and  his  troops.  This  is  fo!!o\\ed  by  that  siege  of  Leyden,  which 
brought  immortal  glory  to  the  friends  of  liberty  in  Holland,  v.dien 
the  fii-mness  of  the  citizens  braved  disaster,  the  loss  of  property 
and  the  hazard  of  life.  The  sluices,  which  kept  at  bay  the  ever  ag- 
gressive waves,  were,  by  an  act  of  stern  courage  and  self-sacrifice, 
rarely  equalled  in  the  annals  of  ancient  or  modern  warfare,  opened 
in  the  face  of  friend  and  foe  and  thus,  at  the  cost  of  immense  de- 
struction to  life  and  property,  the  Spaniards  were  forced  to  retreat, 
the  flower  of  the  attacking  forces  being  overwhelmed  or  burned 
in  the  rising  marshes.  How  effectively  Dr.  Ebers  has  treated 
such  a  drama  in  Holland's  struggle  for  freedom  those  who  have 
read  his  previous  works  need  not  be  mioxxsv^d..'''' —  The  Gazette, 
Montreal. 

William  S.  Gottsbero^cr,  Publisher,  New  York. 


THE  E:>IPEI«0R.-A  TloMANCE,  by  Georg  Ebers, 

from  the  Gciman   by  Clara  Bell.     Aiithorizc'd  edition,   in 
two  volumes.     Paper,  8o  cts.     Cloth,  $1.50. 

"  Like  Hypatia,  it  gives  a  picture  of  the  Roman  Dominion 
and  the  early  growth  of  Christianity  in  Egypt.  Its  pages  are 
brightened  v.ith  the  gay  and  sunny  humanitarianism  and  the  manv- 
sided  sympathy  which  are  the  "spontaneous  outgrowth  of  the 
author's  own  genial  nature.  True  to  the  antique  he  avoids  all  dark 
psychological  depths,  and  delights  our  minds  \\ith  fresh  and 
healthy  pictures  of  the  objective  world.  He  has  a  keen  and  deli- 
cate discrimination  in  the  reading  of  character.  His  men  and 
women  are  sharply  individualized ;  they  glow  with  the  warmest 
life ;  their  forms  do  not  easily  fade  from  the  memory ;  but  the  psy- 
chological power  that  created  them  is  never  obtruded ;  the  treat- 
ment is  entirely  picturesque.  For  obvious  reasons,  the  viilieu,  or 
environment,  of  an  historical  novel  should  be  minutely  pictured. 
Such  is  the  case  in  all  of  Ebers'  novels.  These  minute  touches 
show  the  master  and  genius.  A  second-rate  writer  would  never 
■think  to  tell  us,  as  Professor  Ebers  does,  that  as  Selene  walked 
along  the  corridor  with  the  lamp  in  her  hand,  '  the  flame  blown 
about  by  the  draught,  and  her  own  figure,  were  mingled  here  and 
there  in  the  polished  surface  of  the  dark  marble.'  Notice  the 
minute  touches,  also,  in  the  picture  of  the  gate-keeper's  house  : 
'  The  front  of  the  gate-keeper's  house  v/as  quite  grown  over  with 
ivy  v.'hich  framed  the  door  and  windov/  in  its  long  runners.  Amidst 
the  greenery  hung  numb.ers  of  cages  with  starlings,  blackbirds,  and 
smaller  singing-birds.  The  wide  door  of  the  little  house  stood 
open,  giving  a  view  into  a  tolerably  spacious  and  well-painted 
room.  .  .  .  Close  to  the  drinking  vessels  on  the  stone  top  of  the 
table,  rested  the  ai-m  of  an  elderly  woman  who  had  fallen  asleep  in 
the  arm-chair  in  which  she  sat.  Notwithstanding  the  faint  gray 
moustache  that  marked  her  upper-lip,  and  the  pronounced  ruddi- 
ness of  her  forehead  and  cheeks,  she  looked  pleasant  and  kind. 
She  must  have  been  dreaming  of  something  that  pleased  her,  for 
the  expression  of  her  lips  and  ol  her  eyes — one  being  half  open 
and  the  other  closely  shut — gave  her  a  look  of  contentment.  In 
her  lap  slept  a  large  gray  cat,  and  by  its  side — as  though  discord 
could  never  enter  this  bright  little  abode,  which  exhaled  no  savor 
of  poverty,  but,  on  the  contrary,  a  peculiar  and  fragrant  scent — 
lay  a  small  shaggy  dog,  v\'hose  snowy  whiteness  of  coat  could  only 
be  due  to  the  most  constant  care.  Ebers  excels  in  these  studies  of 
still  life.  Those  acquainted  with  the  chief  traits  of  character  and 
the  chief  events  in  Hadrian's  life,  will  wonder  at  the  skill  with 
which  they  are  organically  moulded  into  most  charming  narrative. 
The  Emperor's  portrait  is  finely  drawn,  so  is  that  of  Sabina  the 
Empress,  and  that  of  the  sculptor.  In  fact,  all  the  chief  charac 
ters  seem  to  us  like  our  personal  friends  or  acquaintances." — The 
American,  Philadelphia,  Saturday,  Jnue  18,  1881. 


OLORIA.— A  NOVEL,  by  B.  Perez  Oaldos,  from  the 

Spanish  by  Clara  Bell,  in  two  vols.  Paper,  $i.oo.  Cloth,  $1.75 

"B.  Perez  Galdos  is  like  a  whirlwind,  resistless  as  he  sweeps 
everything  before  him;  while  beneath,  the  waters  of  passion  foam 
and  heave  and  are  stirred  to  their  depths.  Some  chapters  of  this 
hovel  are  absolutely  agonizing  in  their  intensity  of  passion,  and 
the  surge  and  rush  of  words  bears  the  reader  along  breathless  and 
terrified,  till  he  finds  himself  almost  ready  to  cry  out.  In  others, 
the  storm  is  lulled  and  the  plash  of  waves  is  as  musical  as  the 
author's  native  tongue.  In  others  still,  he  drones  through  the 
lazy  summer  day,  and  the  reader  goes  to  sleep.  However,  the 
story  as  a  whole  is  stormy,  and  the  end  tragic ;  yet  we  are  lost  in 
wonder  at  the  man  who  can  so  charm  us. 

"  It  is  throughout  a  terrible  impeachment  of  religious  intoler- 
ance.    If  it  had  been  written  for  a  people  possessing  the  temper 
of  Englishmen  or  of  Americans  we  should  say  that  it  must  mark 
an  epoch  in  the  political  and  reUgious  history  of  the  country.  Even 
written  as  it  is  by  a  Spaniard,  and  for  Spaniards,  allowing  as  we 
must  for  Spanish  impulsiveness  and  grandiloquence,  which  says  a 
great  deal  to  express  a  very  little,  we  cannot  but  believe  that  the 
work  is  deeply  significant.     It  is  written  by  a  young  man  and  one 
who  is  rapidly  rising  in  power  and  influence  ;  and  when  he  speaks 
it  is  with  a  vehement  earnestness  which  thrills  one  with  the  con- 
viction that  Spain  is  awaking,     'Fresh  air,'  cries  he,  of  Spain, 
'  open  air,  free  exercise  under  every  wind  that  blows  above  or  be- 
low ;  freedom  to  be  dragged  and  buffeted,  helped  or  hindered,  by 
all  tiie  forces  that  are  abroad.     Let  her  tear  off  her  mendicant's 
hood,  her  grave-clothes  and  winding-sheet,  and  stand  forth  in  the 
bracing  storms  of  the  century.    Spain  is  like  a  man  who  is  ill  from 
sheer  apprehension,  and  cannot  stir  for  blisters,  plasters,  bandages 
and  wraps.     Away  with  all  this  paraphernalia,  and  the  body  will 
recover  its  tone  and  vigor.'     Again  :     '  Rebel,  rebel,  your  intelli- 
gence is  your  strength.     Rise,  assert  yourself;  purge  your  eyes  of 
the  dust  which  darkens  them,  and  look  at  truth  face  to  face.' 
Strange  language  this  for  Spain  of  the  Inquisition,  for  bigoted, 
unprogressive,  Catholic  Spain.     The  author  goes  to  the  root  of 
Spanish  decadence ;  he  fearlessly  exposes  her  degradation  and  de- 
clares its  cause.     All  students  of  Spanish  history  will  find  here 
much  that  is  interesting  besides  the  sioxy.''— The   Yale  Literary 
Magazine. 

William  S.  Gottsbergcr,  Publisher,  New  York. 


MARIANELA.— By  B.  P«'ivz  Gaklos,  from  tb.e  Spanish 
by  Clara  Bell,  in  one  vol.      i'aper,  50  cts.     Cloth,  90  cts. 


"Gaklos  is  not  a  novelist,   in  the  sense  that  now  attaches  to 
that   much-abused   word,    but   a  romancer,    pure    and  simple,    as 
much  so  as  Hawthorne  was,   though  his  intentions  are  less  spir- 
itual, and  his  methods   more   material.     jNlarianela  is   the   story 
of  a  poor,  negl-ected  outcast  of  a  girl,  an  orphan  who  is  tolerated 
by  a  family  of  miners,    as   if  she  were   a  dog  or  a  cat ;  who   is 
fed  when  the  humor  takes  them  and  there  is  any  food  that  can 
be  spared,  and  who  is  looked  down  upon  by  everybody;  and  a 
boy  Pablo,  who  is  older  than  she,  the  son  of  a  well-to-do  landed 
proprietor,    whose   misfortune    it   is  (the   boy's,  we   mean)    that 
he  was  born  blind.      His  deprivation  of  sight  is  almost  supplied 
by  the  eyes  of  Marianela,  who   waits  upon  him,  and  goes  with 
him  in  his  daily  wanderings  about  the  mining  country  of  Socartes, 
until  he  knows  the  whole  country  by  heart  and  can  when  need 
is  find  his  way  everywhere  alone.     As  beautiful  as  she  is  homely, 
he  forms    an   ideal   of  her  looks,    based   upon    her    devotion   to 
him,  colored  by  his  sensitive,  spiritual  nature,  and  he  loves  her, 
or  what  he  imagines  she  is,  and  she  returns  his   love — with  fear 
and  trembling,  for  ignorant  as  she  is  she  knows   that  she  is  not 
what  he  believes  her  to   be.     They  love  as  two  children  might, 
naturally,  fervently,  entirely.     The  world  contains  no  woman  so 
beautiful  as  she,  and  he  will  marry  her.     The  idyl  of  this  young 
love  is  prettily  told,  with  simplicity,    freshness,  and  something 
which,  if  not  poetry,  is  yet  poetic.     While  the  course  of  true  love 
is  running  smooth  with  them  (for  it  does   sometimes   in  spite  of 
Shakespeare)  there  appears  upon  the  scene  a  brother  of  the  chief 
engineer  of  the  Socartes  mines  who  is  an  oculist,  and  he,  after  a 
careful  examination  of  the  blind  eyes  of  Pablo,  undertakes  to  per- 
form an  operation  upon  them  which  he  thinks  may  enable  the  lad 
to  see.  About  this  time  there  also  comes  upon  the  scene  a  brother 
of  Pablo's  father,  accompanied  by  his  daughter,  who  is  very  beau- 
tiful.    The  operation  is  successful,  and  Pablo  is  made  to  see.     He 
is  enchanted  with  the  loveliness  of  his  cousin,  and  disenchanled  of 
his  ideal  of  Marianela,  who  dies  heart-broken   at  the  fate  which 
she  knew  would  be  hers  if  he  was  permitted  to  see  her  as  she  was. 
This  is  the  story  of  Marianela,  which  would  have  grown  into  a 
poetic  romance  under   the  creative  mind   and   shaping  hand  of 
Hawthorne,  and  which,  as  conceived  and  managed  by  Galdos,  is 
a  realistic  one  of  considerable  grace  and  pathos.     It  possesses  the 
charm  of  directness  and  simplicity  of  narrative,   is  written  with 
great  picturesqueness,  and  is  colored  throughout  with  impressions 
of  Spanish  country  life." — The  Mail  and  Express,  New   Yorky 
Thursday,  April  12,  1883. 

Williavi  S.  Gottsbcrgcr,   Publisher,  New  York. 


EK^'ESTINE.  — A  Novel,  by  Willieimiue  von  Hili- 

ern,    from   the  German  by   S.    Baring- Gould,   in  two  vols. 

Paper,  80  cts.     Cloth,  $1.50. 

"  'Ernestine'  is  a  work  of  positive  genius.  An  English  critic 
has  likened  the  conception  of  the  heroine  in  her  childhood  to 
George  Eliot's  Maggie  Tulliver,  and  truly  there  is  a  certam  resem- 
blance ;  but  there  is  in  the  piece  a  much  stronger  suggestion  of 
George  Eliot's  calm  mastery  of  the  secret  sprmgs  of  human 
action,  and  George  Eliot's  gift  of  laying  bare  the  life  of  a  human 
soul,  than  of  likeness  between  particular  characters  or  situations 
here  and  those  with  which  we  are  familiar  in  George  Eliot's 
works."— iAVic  York  Evening  Post. 

THE  HOUR  WILL  COME.  — A  Tale  of  an  Alpine 
Cloister,  by  Wilheliniue  von  Hillern,  from  the  Ger- 
man by  Clara  Bell,  in  on^  vol.     Paper,  40  cts.    Cloth,  75  cts. 

'''The   Hour    Will    Come"    i-->    the  title    of   a    translation    by 
Clara  Bell  from  the  German  original  of  Wilhelmine  von  Hillern, 
author  of  that    beautiful    romance    '  Geier-Wally.'      'The    Hour 
Will  Come'  is   hardly  less   interesting,   its  plot  being  one  of  the 
strongest  and  most  pathetic  that  could  well  be  imagined.   The  time 
is  the  Middle  Ages,  and  Frau  von  Hillern  has  achieved  a  remark- 
able success  in  reproducing  the  rudeness,  the  picturesqueness  and 
the   sombre  coloring  of  those   days.     Those  who  take  up  'The 
Hour  Will  Come"   will  not  care    to  lay  it  down  again  until  they 
have  read  it  'CmoVi^y —Baltimore  Gazette. 
HIGHER  THAN  THE  CHURCH.  — An  Art  Legend 
of  Ancient  Times,  by  Wilhelmine  von  Hillern,  from 
the  German  by  Mary  J.  Saflbrd,  in  one  vol.      Paper,   25  cts. 
Cloth,  50  cts. 

"  Mary  T  Safford  translates  acceptably  a  very  charming  short 
story  from  the  German  of  Wilhelmine  von  Hillern.  If  it  was  not 
told  by  the  sacristan  of  Breisach,  it  deserves  to  have  been.  It  has 
the  full  flavor  of  old  German  and  English  love  tales,  such  as  have 
been  crystallized  in  the  old  ballads.  The  Emperor,  the  gifted 
boy,  his  struggles  with  the  stupidity  of  his  townsmen  h.s  ap- 
parently hopeless  love  above  him;  these  form  the  old  delightful 
scene,  set  in  a  Diireresque  border.  There  are  touches  here  and 
there  which  refer  to  the  present.  The  sixteentn  century  tale  has 
a  political  moral  that  will  appeal  to  Germans  who  believe  that 
Alsatia.  once  German  in  heart  as  well  as  in  tongue,  ought  o  be 
heid  by  force  to  the  Fatherland  till  she  forgets  her  beloved 
France."— A'^.   Y.  Tim,es. 

William  S.  Gottsberger,  Publisher,  New  York. 


THE  ELEVENTH  COMMAS i>MENT.— A  Romance 
by  Anton  liiulio  13arrili,  from  the  Italian  by  Clara 
Bell,  in  one  vol.     Paper,  50  cts.     Cloth,  90  cts. 


"  If  Italian  literature  includes  any  more  such  unique  and 
charming  stories  as  this  one,  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  translators  will 
not  fail  to  discover  them  to  the  American  public.  The  '  Eleventh 
Commandment '  deals  with  a  variety  of  topics  —  the  social  intrigues 
necessary  to  bring  about  preferment  in  political  life,  a  communal 
order,  an  adventurous  unconventional  heiress,  and  her  acquiescent, 
good-natured  uncle,  and  most  cleverly  are  the  various  elements 
combined,  the  whole  forming  an  excellent  and  diverting  little  story. 
The  advent  of  a  modern  Eve  in  the  masculine  paradise  (?)  estab- 
lished at  the  Convent  of  San  Bruno  is  fraught  with  weighty  con- 
sequences, not  only  to  the  individual  members  of  the  brotherhood, 
but  to  the  well-being  of  the  community  itself.  The  narrative  of 
M'lle  Adela's  adventures  is  blithely  told,  and  the  moral  deducible 
therefrom  for  men  is  that,  on  occasion,  flight  is  the  surest  method 
of  combating  temptation." — Art  Interchange,  Ne%v  York. 

"Very  entertaining  is  the  story  of  '  The  Eleventh  Command- 
ment,' ingeniously  conceived  and  very  cleverly  executed." — The 
Critic,  Ah'w  York. 


A    WHIMSICAL    WOOING.  — By    Anton    GiiUio 

Barrili,  from  the  Italian  by  Clara  Bell,  in  one  vol.      Paper, 
25  cts.     Cloth,  50  cts. 

"If  'The  Eleventh  Commandment,'  the  previous  work  of 
Barrili,  was  a  good  three-act  jjlay,  'A  Whimsical  Wooing'  is  a 
sparkling  comedietta.  It  is  one  situation,  a  single  catastrophe,  yet, 
like  a  bit  of  impressionist  painting  of  the  finer  sort,  it  reveals  in  a 
flash  all  the  possibilities  of  the  scene.  The  hero,  Roberto  Fenoglio, 
a  man  of  wealth,  position,  and  accomjjlishments,  finds  liimself  at 
the  end  of  his  resources  for  entertainment  or  interest.  Hopelessly 
bored,  he  abandons  himself  to  the  drift  of  chance,  and  finds  him- 
self, in  no  longer  space  of  time  than  from  midnight  to  davlight  — 
where  and  how,  the  reader  will  thank  us  for  not  forestalling  his 
pleasure  in  finding  out  for  himself." — The  A^ation,  A^eio  York. 

" -A  Whimsical  Wooing'  is  the  richly-expressive  title  under 
which  '  Clara  Bell '  introduces  a  cleverly-narrated  episode  l)y 
Anton  Giulio  Barrili  to  American  readers.  It  is  a  sketch  of  Italian 
life,  at  once  rich  and  strong,  but  nevertheless  discreet  in  sentiment 
and  graceful  in  diction.  It  is  the  old  story  of  the  fallacy  of  trust- 
ing to  a  proxy  in  love  matters." — Boston  Post. 

William  S.  Gottsbcrger,  Publisher,  New  York. 


ELIAN  E.— A  Novel,  by  Mme.  Augustus  Craven,  froni 
the  French  by  Lady  Georgiana  Fullerton,  in  one  vol.  Paper, 
5octs.     Cloth,  90  cts.^ 

"It  is  not  only  pure,  but  is,  we  believe,  a  trustworthy  de- 
scription of  the  dignified  French  life  of  which  it  is  a  picture. 
'  Eliane  '  is  one  of  the  very  best  novels  we  have  read  for  one  or 
two  seasons  past."—  The  American  Literary  Churchman,  Balti- 
more. 

"  '  Eliane'  is  interesting  not  only  because  it  is  such  a  record 
of  the  best  kind  of  French  life  and  manners  as  could  only  have 
been  written  by  a  person  thoroughly  at  home  m  the  subject,  but 
also  because  of  the  delicate  drawing  of  character  which  it  con- 
tains."—  London  Sat.  Review. 

ANT! NOUS.— A  Romance  of  Ancient  Rome,  by  George 
Taylor,  from  the  German  by  Mary  J.  Safford,  in   one  vol. 

Paper,  50  cts.     Cloth,  90  cts. 

"  '  Antinous,'  a  Romance  of  Ancient  Rome,  from  the  German 
of  George  Taylor,  by  Mary  J.  Safford,  is  one  of  those  faithful  re- 
productions of  ancient  manners,  customs,  and  scenery  which  Ger^ 
man  authors  are  so  fond  of  writing,  and  in  which  they  are  so 
wonderfully  successful.  The  story  deals  with  the  okl  age  of  the 
Emperor  Hadrian  and  with  his  favorite  Antinous.  The  recital  is 
full  of  power,  and  is  extraordinary  in  its  vividly  realistic  drawing 
of  character.  Though  a  minutely  close  study  of  historical  detail, 
it  is  spirited  in  the  telling  and  of  absorbing  interest  m  the  plot 
and  descriptions.  The  era  and  the  personages  stand  out  with 
stereoscopic  clearness.  Nothing  could  be  finer  than  the  portrait 
of  the  melancholy  Hadrian  and  its  beautifully-contrasted  fe  low 
picture,  the  sorrowful  Antinous.  The  book  is  one  that  appeals  to 
every  cultivated  taste,  and  overflows  with  interest  of  the  most  re- 
fined description."  — A^/'wni'rt;/  Evening  Gazette,  Boston. 

IIANTHOKPE.— A  Novel,  by  George  Henry  "Lewes, 

in  one  vol.     Paper,  40  cts.     Cloth,  75  cts. 

"There  is  a  good  deal  of  wisdom  in  it  that  is  not  without  its 
use."— -A>/«/«r  Science  Monthly. 

"'Ranthorpe'  is  a  reprint  of  a  novel  written  in  1842,  by 
Georire  Henry  Lewes,  the  well-known  husband  of  George  Lliot. 
It  belongs  to  the  psychological  class,  and  is  keenly  introspective 
throuchout.  The  style  is  well  adapted  to  the  work,  displaying  the 
versatility  of  a  mind  whose  natural  bent  was  towards  metaphysics 
and  the  exact  '~.z\^vizt.%.'" —Montreal  Star. 

William  S.  Gottsbergcr,  Publisher,  New  York. 


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